Gurugram sees three consecutive days of ‘poor’ air

With a reading of 279 on the CPCB’s (Central Pollution Control Board) air quality index (AQI), the city saw its third consecutive day of ‘poor’ quality air on Wednesday.

With a reading of 279 on the CPCB’s (Central Pollution Control Board) air quality index (AQI), the city saw its third consecutive day of ‘poor’ quality air on Wednesday. This marks the longest spate of unfavourable air quality in Gurugram in at least the last two months, as per the CPCB data.

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Earlier on Monday, the air quality in Gurugram entered the ‘poor’ category for the first time this season, with an AQI reading of 269. On Tuesday, it jumped to 288.

With wind speeds remaining slow on Wednesday (not exceeding more than 10kmph) and with temperature continuing to drop (by half a degree Celsius), officials and experts said that pollutants from local emissions sources are continuing to accumulate in Gurugram’s atmosphere, with little opportunity for dispersal.

“As we have clarified earlier this week, the current state of pollution is not due to stubble burning. Rather it is because of human activities within Gurugram itself, which is being exacerbated due to environmental factors, such as the lack of wind, rain and heat. We can hope for some relief if the provisions of the Graded Response Action Plan(Grap) are implemented effectively from Thursday,” said Kuldeep Singh, regional officer, HSPCB.

This view was also supported by the ministry of earth sciences air quality warning system for Delhi-NCR, which on Wednesday stated, “Winds are likely to be coming from east direction of Delhi because of which impact of contribution from stubble fires will be minimal.”

Experts are of the opinion that the current spate of ‘poor’ air will continue, especially because the wind speeds have not shown any significant increase. “Even though wind speeds did improve to almost 10 kilometers per hour Wednesday in some parts of Delhi-NCR, pollutants were not dispersed. Temperature has continued to fall, and will do so steadily for another few days, resulting in lower ‘mixing heights’ of pollutants,” explained Sachin Panwar, a city-based air independent air-quality scientist.

With stagnant wind conditions resulting in less diffusion of pollutants, Panwar said that conditions may, in fact, worsen before the week is over. As per a CPCB forecast, Gurugram is likely to have air quality in the upper end of the ‘poor’ category till at least Friday.