Air quality in Gurugram reduces for the first time in 10 days due to firecrackers

The city’s average 24-hour air quality reading at 4pm on Monday was 106 (in the ‘moderate’ category of the air quality index), up from 91, the previous day.

After 10 straight days of ‘satisfactory’ air quality, largely due to the absence of vehicles from city streets and the closure of industries, pollution levels in Gurugram spiked on the night of April 5 after the use of firecrackers during a nine-minute candlelight vigil.

All of the city’s four official air quality monitors recorded spikes in particulate matter beginning at 9pm on Sunday.(Photo by Aalok Soni/Hindustan Times)

The city’s average 24-hour air quality reading at 4pm on Monday was 106 (in the ‘moderate’ category of the air quality index), up from 91, the previous day. While the spike isn’t a steep one, it marks the first time since March 26 that the city’s air quality reading passed the 100-mark.

All of the city’s four official air quality monitors recorded spikes in particulate matter beginning at 9pm on Sunday. At Vikas Sadan, the maximum concentration of PM2.5 between Sunday and Monday touched 170µg/m³, up from 83µg/m³ between Saturday and Sunday. At another location in Gwal Pahari, PM2.5 levels soared to a maximum of 276µg/m³ between Sunday and Monday, as opposed to 235µg/m³ the previous day. Yet another monitor in Sector 51, which has been recording PM2.5 levels between 60 and 100µg/m³ since March 26, saw PM2.5 levels touch as much as 284µg/m³ on April 5.

Air quality experts and officials both attributed this spike to firecrackers which could be heard on the night of April 5. “While the spike wasn’t major, it shows just how prone air quality is to deterioration even with just a few firecrackers being burst,” Sachin Panwar, a city-based air quality scientist, said.

Kuldeep Singh, regional officer, Haryana State Pollution Control Board, Gurugram, said, “We will check the data. In any case, with no vehicular movement happening these days, and with temperatures also rising, pollution levels will remain largely low. There is no need to worry.”