(MENAFN- Live Mint) As India celebrated the Diwali, pollution levels skyrocketed in Delhi, with netizens across the national capital reporting AQI figures at 1000 or even higher.

Apart from alarmed citizens who flooded social media, even Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale even shared a screenshot showing an AQI reading of 1975 at the Mandir Marg monitoring station at 1.30 am on Tuesday.

Images of smog-obscured streets circulated on social media on Tuesday morning seemed to cement peoples' apprehensions that air pollution in Delhi-NCR had reached catastrophic levels in the aftermath of Diwali celebrations.

But, did it? It's not a straightforward answer.

Did AQI in Delhi cross 1000 after Diwali?

Yes, and no.

Most of the screenshots shared by social media users seemed to be using the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s method of calculating the AQI, which allows for figures much higher than 401-500 range of "severe" air pollution we usually see in India.

Indian government agencies use the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)'s method to calculate AQI, which defines the "severe" category as falling between 401-500.

The difference between having a system which lacks an upper limit and the CPCB's method is that international air quality monitoring platforms such as IQAir often report values much higher than official Indian figures-a location which has an AQI value of 1000 as per an international platform could well have an AQI value of 500 or even less as per CPCB.

For instance, IQAir reported an AQI value of 1365 for Lodhi Road on Tuesday morning.

Lodhi Road AQI

But the CPCB reading for the same Lodhi Road monitoring station showed 327.

Lodhi Road AQI

Other locations showed similar variations.

The IQAir reading for Mandir Marg on Tuesday morning was 1479.

Mandir Marg AQI

The CPCB reading from Mandir Marg, meanwhile, showed an AQI reading of 317.

Mandir Marg AQI

As can be seen from the images above, the difference between the US AQI method used by IQAir and the CPCB's own figures is quite large, and is attributable to methodological differences.

That said, the relatively lower CPCB readings by no means signify that air pollution in the national capital isn't at an alarming level: the average AQI of Delhi on Tuesday morning 7:15 AM was 'very poor' at 368, with four stations reporting 'severe' levels of air pollution at levels above 400.

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