Post Diwali, pollution higher in 9 of 11 capital cities this year

NAGPUR: On Diwali, most capital cities in India witnessed air pollution, which was significantly worse than last year’s festive period.
An analysis of data sourced from Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations installed by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) revealed the highest average level of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 was recorded in Patna on November 12. At 206.1 micrograms per cubic meter (mpcm), pollution levels were 13 times more than the safe limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The data of 11 capital cities — Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mumbai and Patna — was analysed by NCAP Tracker, a joint project by Climate Trends and Respirer Living Sciences that tracks the country’s progress towards achieving targets set under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
On November 11, a day before Diwali this year, eight of 11 capital cities — Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Mumbai — had lower PM 2.5 levels as compared to the day before Diwali last year (October 23). For the same days, Gandhinagar, Kolkata and Patna had levels higher this year compared to last.

Analysts further found that on Monday, a day after Diwali, Delhi recorded the highest PM2.5 average of around 396 mpcm between midnight to 12noon. Among the 11 capitals, highest spike (recorded at an interval of 15 minutes) was also seen in the national capital. “The pollutant level reached 999.5 mpcm at Pusa around 1.30am,” the analysis added.
Bengaluru recorded lower PM 2.5 averages in 2023 as compared to 2022 for the day before Diwali, Diwali day and day after. Additionally, on the day after Diwali 2023, it clocked the lowest PM 2.5 average among 11 cities analysed in this report.
Bengaluru recorded lower averages this year for the day before Diwali, on the festive day and the day after.
Aarti Khosla, director at Climate Trends said, “Data shows widespread bursting of crackers took away gains made due to rains, thereby decimating useful impact of regulation for at least a 2-3 day period till the hazardous levels settle.”
Full report on www.toi.in