Residents heave sigh of relief as air quality improves in Jalandhar

Residents of Jalandhar have heaved a sigh of relief with the AQI staying in the green for almost a week now.

For the past five days, Jalandhar’s Air Quality Index (AQI) has hovered between good and moderate categories. On Wednesday, the city recorded a maximum AQI of 139, while the average AQI stood at 118. A day earlier, Tuesday’s readings showed a maximum AQI of 168 and an average of 120.

Despite these figures, several busy streets and crowded areas continue to reel under clouds of dust and smoke. Jalandhar’s AQI readings are based on a monitor installed at the Circuit House —a relatively cleaner zone with decent tree cover — potentially underrepresenting pollution levels in other parts of the city.

The worst AQI in the recent days seen in the city was on November 10 and 13. On November 13, the city had recorded a very poor maximum AQI of 320 while on November 10 the maximum AQI was 328, average 215.

Jalandhar did not witness any farm fires today. The reduction in AQI has coincided with the marginal dip in the farm fires. Jalandhar never saw more than seven farm fires on any single day this season. The total farm fires reported in Jalandhar until now are 83. Across Jalandhar and Kapurthala, farm fires have recorded a dramatic dip compared to last year.

In the past six days, Jalandhar has also witnessed only two farm fires (one each on November 16 and 18).

Civil Surgeon Dr Rajesh Garg said air pollution had a negative impact on the health of young children, pregnant women, elderly people above 60 years of age, people suffering from diabetes, respiratory, asthma, heart diseases, etc. for a long time. He said to reduce air pollution, emphasis should be laid on manual work instead of machinery as much as possible, two-wheelers and four-wheelers should be used less, stubble should not be burnt, and maximum trees should be planted.

He said air pollution causes problems like cough, shortness of breath, runny nose, redness in the eyes, itching and nervousness.