Lucknow air inches towards ‘very poor’, Talkatora leads pollution chart

Similarly, Gomti Nagar and Kukrail forest area recorded an average AQI of 289 and 288, respectively, on Wednesday, slightly higher than Tuesday’s 269 and 217

LUCKNOW Lucknow’s air quality index (AQI), which was ‘poor’ on Tuesday, inched close to the ‘very poor’ mark (290) on Wednesday evening with all five live stations recording ‘poor’ AQI for the second consecutive day. On Tuesday, Lucknow’s AQI stood at 269.

An aerial view of Gomti Nagar amid smog. (HT Photo)

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) classifies AQI between 0-50 as “good”, between 51 and 100 as “satisfactory”, between 101 and 200 as “moderate”, between 201 and 300 as “poor”, between 301 and 400 as “very poor”, and over 400 as “severe”.

Talkatora industrial area led the pollution chart with an average AQI of 338 (‘very poor’), much above Tuesday’s 255. Similarly, Gomti Nagar and Kukrail forest area recorded an average AQI of 289 and 288, respectively, on Wednesday, slightly higher than Tuesday’s 269 and 217.

Likewise, Kendriya Vidyalay (Aliganj) and BR Ambedkar University station recorded 267 and 262, lower than their Tuesday figures of 314 and 227. The data was fetched from six live monitoring stations at Talkatora, Lalbagh, Kendriya Vidyalay, Gomti Nagar, Kukrail, and BR Ambedkar University set up jointly by Central and State Pollution Control Boards to monitor pollution.

POSSIBLE HEALTH IMPACTS

As per CPCB, poor AQI can lead to breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure while ‘very poor’ can lead to respiratory illness on prolonged exposure.

Similarly, exposure under ‘severe’ category can affect healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases.

AQI in other U.P. cities

Baghpat 293

Bulandshahr 290

Ghaziabad 328

Greater Noida 304

Hapur 351

Kanpur 239

Meerut 251

Muzaffarnagar 254

Noida 304