Bihar’s overall air quality improves, Patna’s worsens

Air in parts of Bihar’s capital Patna turned toxic on Thursday, slipping to “severe” category, even as the state’s overall air quality index (AQI) slightly improved as no other city or town recorded “severe” AQI, a respite after several towns from the state figured among the country’s most polluted areas for days together

Air in parts of Bihar’s capital Patna turned toxic on Thursday, slipping to “severe” category, even as the state’s overall air quality index (AQI) slightly improved as no other city or town recorded “severe” AQI, a respite after several towns from the state figured among the country’s most polluted areas for days together.

Marine Drive in Patna on Thursday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

On Wednesday, four towns — Siwan, Buxar, Begusarai and Chapra — had registered “severe” AQI.

However, AQI at several places in the state remained at the threshold of “severe” category.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the overall AQI of Patna, as measured at six monitoring stations, stood at 362 with PM10 and PM2.5 being prominent pollutants. Of them, the air monitoring station installed at Samanpura recorded the worst air quality, with an AQI of 447 which is classified as “severe”.

The pollution levels at other air monitoring stations were in the “very poor” zone as AQI at Danapur, Rajbansi Nagar, Planetarium Complex Muradpur and Shikarpur stood at 361, 330, 339, 326 and 330 respectively.

The CPCB classifies an AQI of zero to 50 as “good”, 51-100 as “satisfactory”, 101-200 as “moderate”, 201-300 as “poor”, 301-400 as “very poor” and above 401 as “severe”.

Begusarai, which recorded “severe” AQI on Wednesday, slightly improved and jumped to “very poor” with index value of 377, followed by Siwan 374, Bihar Sharif 364, Chapra 360 and Sasaram 358.

Bihar State Pollution Control Board’s chairman Ashok Ghosh said, “The pollution level can be minimised with the participation of common people. Though we cannot change the natural factors responsible for increase in air pollution, small steps taken by people can reduce pollution by anthropogenic factors such as vehicular emission, open burning of coal, construction of work, transportation of uncovered construction materials like sand.”

He also appealed to the public to plant trees and reduce the use of vehicles for curbing air pollution in the city.

Meanwhile, the mercury in the state is likely to fall by two to three degrees over the next two days.

As per Patna Meteorological Centre, Sitamarhi remained the coldest place in the state, with the lowest minimum temperature of 10.5°. The average maximum temperature hovered around 28 to 30 °c and minimum temperature around 13°C.

As per five-day forecast, the minimum temperature in the southwest districts of the state will plunge to 10 to 12°C on Saturday.