While still reeling from the impact of last Thursday’s Diwali celebrations, many cities in Uttar Pradesh continued to breathe “poor” or “moderate” air, even as they recorded slightly better AQI, or air quality index, on Sunday.

The most significant improvement was seen in Kanpur, where the AQI rose to 289 on Friday from 131 on Wednesday. On Sunday, it breathed “moderate” air as its AQI dropped to 187 from 206 the previous day, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.

Meanwhile, there was little change in Saturday and Sunday’s AQI recorded in Lucknow. From 306 on Friday, it fell to 245 on Saturday and 242 on Sunday.

Ghaziabad saw its AQI improve to 290 from 330 on Saturday. Greater Noida recorded 248 AQI from 258 on Friday. Noida, Muzaffarnagar, Agra and other cities in western UP reflected a similar trend. Gorakhpur’s AQI was weak at 274 on Friday.

According to experts, the marked change in AQI after Diwali is primarily due to increased human activities during the festive season.

The six live monitoring stations in Lucknow – Talkatora, Lalbagh, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Gomti Nagar, Kukrail and BR Ambedkar University – recorded extreme air pollution on Diwali night, especially between 10 pm and 2 am.

At most stations, PM2.5 and PM10 values ​​reached a maximum of 424 limits or very close to it in the “severe” category between these hours, with the live station graph turning dark red.