Gurugram air in ‘severe’ zone for third consecutive day

The city on Monday recorded its worst air quality of the year, with a reading of 482 (in ‘severe’ zone) on the Central Pollution Control Board’s air quality index

The city on Monday recorded its worst air quality of the year, with a reading of 482 (in ‘severe’ zone) on the Central Pollution Control Board’s air quality index (AQI) bulletin. It was also the third consecutive day of ‘severe’ air in Gurugram, marking the city’s longest spate of such hazardous air quality this season.

HT Image

On Monday evening, the HSPCB’s air quality monitor at Vikas Sadan showed an AQI of 492, while two monitors on the Gurugram-Faridabad road had an AQI of 467 and 437. The HSPCB’s monitor in Sector 51, however, recorded an AQI of at least 500 (the upper limit of the apparatus) for around 20 continuous hours on Monday.

An AQI reading between 401 and 500 is categorised as ‘severe’ and can cause people distress and respiratory complications, especially for children and senior citizens, as per the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) national ambient air quality standards.

When air quality index surpasses a reading of 500, it enters the ‘severe plus’ category, during which construction work is to be halted, entry of trucks into Delhi-NCR cities stopped and the odd-even vehicle rationing scheme is recommended to be implemented, as per the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap).

Gurugram was also among the most polluted cities in the country on Monday, as per CPCB data. Of the 110 cities in India where air quality is routinely monitored, only Dharuhera (in Rewari) and Manesar had worse air quality than Gurugram, with AQIs of 491 and 483, respectively.

Meanwhile, other major cities in the national capital region (NCR), which have typically recorded higher pollution levels than Gurugram, recorded ‘severe’ AQIs but had readings slightly lower than that of Gurugram. New Delhi on Monday had an AQI of 477, while Faridabad had an AQI of 456. In Uttar Pradesh, Ghaziabad had an AQI of 482, while Noida and Greater Noida recorded 478 and 477 on the AQI charts, respectively.

“Until late last week, winds blowing from the north and north west of Delhi were able to transport some of Gurugram’s pollution eastward. Over the weekend, this locomotion of pollutants has stopped due to wind speeds becoming almost negligible. Since Saturday, there has been a steady accumulation of dust and particulate matter across Delhi-NCR, a lot of which has come from farm fires in Punjab and Haryana. If it wasn’t for favourable wind speeds, Gurugram would have been faced with this situation a few days earlier,” said Sachin Panwar, a city-based air quality scientist.

Ultrafine particulate matter having a diameter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) was the city’s most prominent pollutant on Monday, with a reading of 462 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3), up from 437ug/m3 on Sunday — when Gurugram’s AQI was 434 — as per CPCB data.

As per the early air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, “Significantly high farm fire counts (approx 3,600) were observed over Punjab on 08.11.2020 which is affecting AQI over Delhi/NCR and parts of Northwest India.”

It further stated that the deterioration in air quality is “likely owing to slow wind speed in particular during night time and contribution from farm fires.” The situation is not expected to improve significantly this week, and “air quality is likely to remain in Severe to upper end of Very Poor category on 10.11.2020 and Very Poor category on 11.11.2020.”

However, with the IMD predicting a change in wind direction from November 10, only a slight improvement may be expected across Delhi-NCR. As per the CPCB’s central control room forecast, the AQI for Gurugram’s Vikas Sadan monitor is expected to be around 440 on Tuesday, and may improve to 317 (’very poor’) on Wednesday.