Air quality in non-attainment towns improves due to lockdown

Ambika Sharma
Tribune News Service
Solan, May 8

The lockdown might have slowed down the economic activities in the industrial areas but the air quality in these areas has shown a marked improvement. The azure sky and dust-free air, which had become a casualty in towns like Una, Baddi, Paonta Sahib, Parwanoo and Sundernagar have now become a treat for the residents.

With seven towns—Baddi, Damtal, Kala Amb, Nalagarh, Paonta Sahib, Parwanoo and Sunder Nagar—Himachal has the fourth-highest number of seven towns which figure in the list of non-attainment cities of the nation. Their ambient particulate matter was rated poor by the Central Pollution Control Board continuously since 2011.

As per the air monitoring done by the State Pollution Control Board(SPCB) the level of respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM), which is a particulate matter having a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres, in Housing Board area of Baddi has reduced from 125 micrograms per cubic meter(MPCM) registered in January to 71.2 MPCM in April while in Parwanoo sector IV it saw a dip from 48.7 MPCM to 37.9 MPCM on May 1. In Sundernagar town the RSPM level reduced from 72 MPCM in January to 40 MPCM on May 1 while in the industrial town of Paonta Sahib it has seen a sizeable dip from 75.9 MPCM to 49.3 MPCM in May. Una town has registered a marked improvement from 60.6 MPCM recorded in January to less than half at 27.6 MPCM in May.

Swati Sharma, a Baddi resident, who looks after environmental-related issues in a consumer manufacturing unit said, “Perceptible change in the environment was visible in all parameters like particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and even the temperature has reduced by 3 to 5 per cent overall in the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh area.”

She added that this phase had made it clear that human and planetary health are interconnected and it was up to human beings to make the right decision to address the problem of environmental pollution.

Use of induction furnaces/boilers/ thermic fluid heaters etc. (having Particulate Matter – PM, Oxides of Sulphur and Oxides of Nitrogen as a pollutant) is the major cause of air pollution from the industries and the main air pollutants of concern are PM 10 and PM 2.5.

There are a total of 519 air/emission emitting industries in the state’s industrial hub of BBN alone.  Other factors like vehicular exhaust, road dust, construction activities, garbage burning, domestic fuel also add substantially to air pollution. Transportation of crushed stones and sand in open trucks, which was another dominant activity here, also leads to high levels of suspended particulate matter and RSPM. Though industrial activity was increasing by the day residents exhaled healthy air in April when only pharmaceutical and food manufacturing industries operated.

Member Secretary, State Pollution Control Board, Aditya Negi said, “It was a welcome relief to see improvement in the air quality in the non-attainment towns after a long time. The staff  was endeavouring to improve the air quality as per an action plan chalked out by involving allied departments.”

Notably, the latest CPCB’s ratings released in March has rated the air quality of  Baddi, Nalagarh, Kala Amb and Paonta Sahib as poor while some improvement was noticed in Parwanoo, Sundernagar and Damtal.