Kolkata’s ‘satisfactory’ air quality turns ‘poor’ in 3 days
Times of India | 3 November 2024
12 Kolkata: The city's air quality that was ‘satisfactory' on Diwali night (Thursday) before sliding to ‘moderate' on Friday when crackers continued to be burst slipped further to ‘poor' on Saturday as the pollution load of the two-day revelry left the air heavy with particulate matter. This is the first time that the AQI has turned ‘poor' this season.
Experts said the reckless and law-defying revelry led to irreversible damage to the environment and posed a risk to the health of citizens.
The display of colourful fireworks competed with high-decibel firecrackers, so the air pollution and noise pollution leapfroged unabated. On Diwali-Kali Puja night, the violators played hide and seek with cops time and again across the city. When, on the basis of complaints, a mobile squad of the pollution control board (WBPCB) and cops reached a spot, the burting of crackers stopped, only to resume with renewed gusto the moment they left. "Catching a culprit was like a search for a pin from the haystack," said a WBPCB officer.
The effect was felt on Saturday. Ballygunge emerged as the most polluted zone in the city. Areas neighbouring Ballygunge are traditionally fireworks hot spots. Kasba, Selimpur, Dhakuria, Park Circus, Bondel Gate and Picnic Garden saw indiscriminate bursting of crackers both on Diwali night and the next evening.
On Friday, the B T Road campus of RBU was the most polluted station and had even touched the ‘very poor' category. The area had witnessed fireworks revelry throughout Diwali night, pushing the AQI from ‘satisfactory' to ‘poor' and then ‘very poor' level. However, faster dispersal of pollutants because of high radiative heat cleansed the zone, and on Saturday it again swung back to the ‘poor' category.
As the city's air turns foul, scientists pointed out that the effect will be felt across neighbourhoods. "With ambient air dynamic, if one zone turns ‘poor', the other zones automatically have the same fate. Gradually, this man-made disaster will impact the entire city. Even the Rabindra Sarobar zone, which is considered to be the lung of south Kolkata and saw the most muted Diwali, also gradually plunged into the ‘poor' category on Saturday," said an environment scientist. Till Friday evening, the air at Sarobar was ‘satisfactory'.
"Diwali happens at a meteorologically disadvantaged time. Significantly, the steady dip of air quality around this time is ominous for the citizens. With the lowering of the thermal inversion layer, the pollutants refuse to disperse vertically and tend to hang low in the atmosphere, forcing us to inhale highly toxic air. The finer particulate matter travels to our bloodstream and lungs to play havoc with our lives," said WBPCB chairman Kalyan Rudra.
With the meteorological dispersal becoming slow and inefficient, there is a piling-up effect. The residue pollutants of the first day get added to the freshly generated pollutants of the second day. Thus, the worsening continues unless a sudden meteorological phenomenon like a smart rain cleanses the ambient air to a great extent, said an air quality expert.