Chandigarh's air quality deteriorates to 'severe' category; noise levels increase; UT Administration's cracker-bursting restriction goes for a toss

Chandigarh, November 13

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City’s air quality deteriorated from very poor to severe category on Diwali night.

According to the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee, the air quality worsened after 6 pm and around 10 pm it was observed to be ‘severe’ at the Sector 53 monitoring station and ‘very poor’ category at the Sector 22, PEC-12 and IMTECH stations.

There was improvement in the AQI after 2 am on November 13 and it is further improving. The observations made in the morning of the day next to Diwali showed the air quality that had reached ‘severe’ on Diwali night coming to ‘moderate’.

It was observed that in each station, the air quality index and noise levels increased on Diwali day. However, because of weather conditions the AQI has been improving after 3 am on November 13 and is likely to improve further.

As this time, Diwali fell in November, due to climatic condition and stubble-burning the air quality deteriorated further and sometimes came under ‘very poor’ category.

Noise levels also increase

Noise levels also increased on Diwali day as compared to the other days. The highest noise levels from 8 pm to 10 pm were recorded in Sector 22 (79.2 dB(A)) and the lowest in Sector 17 (64.4 dB(A)).

Cracker restriction goes for a toss

The UT Administration had put restrictions on bursting of fire crackers. According to the order, only green crackers were to be burnt and that too between 8 pm and 10 pm on Diwali.

Crackers were burst even before 8 pm and after 10 pm in several parts of the city.