Five cities in Haryana among 10 most polluted

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 28

Five Haryana cities ranked among the 10 most polluted cities across the country after Diwali. In fact, the state occupied 17 of the 34 slots on the list of cities that recorded “very poor” air quality index (AQI).

Muzaffarnagar with AQI 426, which fell in “severe” category, had the worst air quality in the country. It was followed by Moradabad (398), Noida (397) and Ghaziabad (396), which fell in “very poor” bracket.

Edit: Polluting diwali

Then came Kurukshetra and Sirsa, which recorded the worst air quality in Haryana with AQI at 392, followed by Ambala (AQI 385). All three were in “very poor” category. Jind (373) and Gurugram (372) were the other two Haryana cities that ranked among the top 10 most polluted cities.

In Punjab, Jalandhar recorded worst air quality (AQI 377) followed by Ludhiana (353).

The list was based on data collected from 4 pm on October 27 to 4 pm on October 28. A day before (4 pm on October 26 to 4 pm on October 27), Haryana had seven cities among the top 10 most polluted cities in the country. The AQI in 0-50 bracket is  categorised as “good”, 51-100 “satisfactory”, 101-200 “moderate”, 201-300 “poor” and 301-400 “very poor”. If AQI is above 400, it has respiratory effects even on healthy people.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, the sub-indices for individual pollutants at a monitoring location are calculated using its 24-hour average concentration value (8-hour in case of carbon monoxide and ozone) and health breakpoint concentration range. The worst sub-index is the AQI for that location.

Experts say Haryana has more number of cities in the “very poor” category not only due to Diwali pollution, but also due to stubble burning. Other cities of the state having “very poor” AQI were, Hisar (370), Panipat (366), Faridabad (358), Dharuhera (345), Narnaul (343), Yamunanagar (342), Bhiwani (337), Rohtak (329), Manesar (326),Karnal (323) Kaithal (319) and Mandikhera (304).

All Haryana cities in “very poor” category had PM 2.5 as the major pollutant, while it was PM 10 in case of Karnal and Kaithal. “On October 26, we noticed 2,000 stubble-burning spots through satellite. On October 28, the number was 1,250. So stubble burning is one of the factors,” said Dr Ravindra Khaiwal, Additional Professor, Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGI, Chandigarh.

“Around Diwali, vehicular movement is also more, there are traffic jams and dust due to movement of vehicles is also high. Firecrackers also add to the pollution,” he added.