Chennai, Jan. 14 -- The Air Quality Index (AQI) in various parts of Chennai dipped by severalnotches as people burnt discarded items to celebrate Bhogi, marking the beginning of the 4-dayPonga festival in Tamil Nadu.
The smoke that emanated from burnt items and coupled with mist and haze led to dense smogacross the city on Wednesday morning with the visibility droppingto 300 metres around theChennai airport for about an hour.
This year, visibility was poor in comparison to the 400 metres witnessed on Bhogi day last year.
Officials of the Aerodrome Meteorological Office, Meenambakkam, said visibility dropped steadilyfrom 4.30 a.m. and wnt down to as low as 300 metres between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.
However, the visibility level significantly i...