Noida sees poor air quality, likely to worsen
Air quality of Noida and neighbouring areas dropped on Sunday.
Pollution monitoring agencies warned that the air is likely to worsen as weather was likely to remain unfavourable in the coming days.
On Sunday, the wind speed dropped from the average 20kmph on Saturday to 8kmph on Sunday. Weather analysts said that while 8kmph is moderate wind speed and enough to disperse the local pollutants in ideal conditions, it is, however, not enough to disperse the excess pollutants that were blown in from Punjab and Haryana where there are a few farm fires still burning.
“The wind speed has dropped from 20 kmph on Saturday to 8 kmph on Sunday. For next three days the wind speed will hover around 6 to 8 kmph only, which is enough to disperse smaller particles in ideal conditions like low humidity, normal temperatures. However, if the number of farm fire incidents increases, the air quality will worsen,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD).
According to the central pollution control board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) of Noida on Sunday, on a scale of 0 to 500, was 268 against 223 a day earlier. The AQI of Greater Noida was 273 against 226 a day earlier. The AQI of Ghaziabad was 300 against 240 a day earlier.
The AQI between 101 to 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 is ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 is considered ‘very-poor’ and above 400 is considered ‘severe’.
Meanwhile the fine particles or pollutants also recorded a rise in their overall volume over past 24 hours.
PM2.5 for past 24-hours in Noida was recorded at 116.41 microgrammes per cubic metres against 104.70 microgrammes per cubic metres a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 120.09 units against 101.23 units a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Ghaziabad was 151.86 units against 112.24 units a day earlier. The safe limit for PM2.5 is 60 units.
According to the System of air quality and weather forecasting and research (SAFAR), the AQI is likely to deteriorate further due to rise in the number of forest fire and slowing down of the speed.
“The AQI is forecasted to marginally deteriorate to the Very Poor category for the next two days. Likely to further deteriorate and forecasted to be in the higher end of Very Poor category for on 2nd December.,” said the SAFAR statement on Sunday.
