City records AQI at 316, breaches danger mark

Recording of high Air Quality Index (AQI) of 316 in Amritsar at 4 pm yesterday (severe category) has sent environmentalists in a tizzy. It was recorded at 163 today at 11 am.

Residents continued with their commutes and other

day-to-day activities as the AQI remained hazardous. The data was sourced from the Punjab Pollution Control Board’s (PPCB) air monitoring unit installed at the Golden Temple.

What perturbs experts is that neither farm fires nor cracker burning for festivities took place in the city during the past couple of days, yet the AQI breached the danger mark.

The region around Amritsar experiences crop residue burning (especially paddy/straw) after harvest on a large scale. This injects significant quantities of fine particulate matter (PM2.5/PM10) into the air.

Moreover, this time, there has been a drastic fall in the number of stubble burning cases in Amritsar district between September 15 and November 27, compared to the same period over the past two years. As a result, a thick cover of smog that usually envelops the city during mornings and evenings was absent this year. The Air Quality Index (AQI) remained within permissible limits, and roads that earlier witnessed reduced visibility and accidents due to smog did not record such incidents this season. A total of 1,573 stubble-burning cases were detected via satellite in the district during this period in 2023. The number dropped to 734 cases in 2024 and further declined to 315 cases this year.

In September this year, while attending a case, Chief Justice of India BR Gavai orally questioned why firecracker ban should apply only to Delhi-NCR and not to other cities facing severe pollution. He recalled: “I was in Amritsar last winter and the pollution was worse than Delhi”. It is enough to raise an alarm for citizens and the authorities, especially the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and the district administration.

Gavai was right in his observation. Amritsar had turned into a gas chamber with air quality index (AQI) touching the 360 mark during the festival of lights (Diwali) last year. The average air quality index (AQI) of Amritsar breached the 350 mark on November 2, 2024, a day after Diwali celebrations were held, The city became nothing short of a gas chamber as temperature rose to 370 in the evening.

Sukhdev Singh, Environment Engineer, PPCB, said: “There is no need to panic as the surge in AQI was recorded only on a day. It was on December 12 and found to be 135 and 163 at 11 am today.” Maximum coverage of an air monitoring unit is believed to be a maximum of one-km radius.

Dr Adarsh Pal Vig, Professor, Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University and former Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB): said: “Amritsar is in the Indo-Gangetic plain, where during cooler months, a temperature inversion, i.e., cold air near the ground, while warmer air above traps pollutants close to the surface. This phenomenon could have contributed to the surge in AQI on Saturday.”