Chandigarh's air cleanest in India

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 29

The City Beautiful on Saturday had the cleanest air among 101 towns and cities of the country whose air pollution level is monitored by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

According to the data on the CPCB’s air pollution-monitoring app, “Sameer”, the air quality index (AQI) level of Chandigarh was 17 with the most prominent pollutant being ozone or O3. On Sunday, the value rose to 40.

Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee member secretary TC Nautiyal said this was probably for the first time in the past 8-10 years that he had seen the city’s air quality to be this good. He, however, said data for the past years could not be collated at present due to curfew in the Union Territory. While the air quality of remote areas of Himachal Pradesh and other states could have been better, there are no air quality monitoring stations there which are connected to the CPCB’s app.

Nautiyal cited the rainfall on Saturday and the fall in vehicular traffic for the decline in pollution levels.

“A major chunk of the city’s air pollution, about 50 per cent of it, comes from the traffic on road. Some of it comes from the burning of automobile fuel and the rest comes from the dust on the ground that is thrown into the atmosphere because of the friction of tyres.

Another important aspect here is the weather. Ever since the lockdown, the city has been receiving frequent rains, resulting in plummeted pollution levels,” he said.

He said: “Though I don’t have the data, I believe the city has seen such low pollution levels for the first time in the past eight or 10 years.”

In Chandigarh, particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) was 12, PM10 was 17, NO2 was 12, NH3 was 9, SO2 was 12 and Ozone was 17.

The city was the only one to have an AQI below 20. Mandideep, a town in Madhya Pradesh, had the second lowest AQI, 20. It was followed by Narnaul (23), Mandi Gobindgarh and Hisar (24), Khanna (25), Ludhiana (27), and Ropar and Rohtak (26).

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