India, Oct. 19 -- New Delhi

Delhi continued its losing battle with air pollution on Saturday, marking the fifth consecutive day of "poor" air quality index (AQI) in the Capital, and taking it closer to the "very poor" levels. Amid unfavourable meteorological factors, firecracker bursting is set to cause further deterioration in air quality, with forecasts predicting the AQI to breach the "severe" levels over the next few days.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) classifies an AQI of 0-50 as "good", 51-100 as "satisfactory", 101-200 as "moderate", 201-300 as "poor", 301-400 as "very poor" and 401-500 as "severe".

The 24-hour average AQI on Saturday was 268, continuing the worsening trend of readings of 254 and 245 recorded over t...