Only one day of ‘good’ air quality in Noida so far

Noida: Despite lockdown and heavy rains, the city has so far seen only one day of air quality that could be categorised as ‘good’ on the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) air quality index (AQI) bulletin.

HT Image

The city, which is experiencing its best air quality of the year in the month of August, with the AQI oscillating within ‘satisfactory’ level, saw its first ‘good’ category AQI on Saturday, due to consistent rains during the evening hours. However the air quality deteriorated again on Sunday.

According to data from CPCB, Noida’s AQI has been at its best in August this year.

On Saturday, Noida saw an AQI of 50 on a scale of 0 to 500, which is considered ‘good’, against 84 or ‘satisfactory’ a day earlier. However, the AQI of the city deteriorated again to 65 or ‘satisfactory’.

“In Uttar Pradesh cities like Noida, there is a lot of residential construction. There are also a good number of vehicles. Construction and vehicular emissions are the main sources of pollution. Rains do settle down pollutants, but when emissions from other sources are continuous, it affects the overall air quality. Also it has been seen that the region sees patchy rains, which could be a possibility that the average AQI is affected and it hardly reaches a good category,” says Shambahavi Shukla, program officer, air quality, centre for science and environment (CSE).

According to the India Meteorological Department’s data, Noida so far saw an average rainfall of 65.3mm till Sunday, up from 32.2mm on Friday August 21.

According to the records from CPCB and Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), the AQI for Noida in April oscillated from 73 to 184 on a scale of 0 to 500, the AQI for May oscillated between 97 to 160, for June it was between 63 and 272, in July it was between 62 to 160, while in August it has been ranged from 53 to 119 so far.