E-Paper
AQI improving slowly in many U.P. cities post Diwali
According to experts, the marked change in AQI after Diwali is primarily caused by increased human activities during the festive season.
While still reeling from the impact of Diwali celebrations last Thursday, many Uttar Pradesh cities 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 AQI spiked 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’s 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 western UP cities reflected a similar trend. Gorakhpur’s AQI was poor at 274 on Friday.
According to experts, the marked change in AQI after Diwali is primarily caused by 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 under the ‘severe’ category between these hours with the live stations graph turning dark red.
