As winter approaches, rise in pollution turns air quality in city pockets ‘poor’
Times of India | 16 November 2024
12 Kolkata: With the nip in the air and inversion of the atmospheric layers, the air quality in some pockets of the city plunged to ‘poor' (AQI: 201-300) from ‘moderate' (AQI: 101-200). With the progress of winter, the city's air quality may worsen.
On Friday, there was a blanket of smog enveloping some parts of the city, particularly the eastern part, reducing visibility. However, the bright sun helped disperse the pollutants as the day progressed. Since the morning, continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations in Ballygunge, Fort William and Salt Lake dipped to ‘poor' AQI, while Jadavpur and Victoria were slowly swinging towards ‘poor' AQI. The stations at Rabindra Bharati University (BT Road) and Rabindra Sarobar continued to remain ‘moderate'.
With the temperature dropping and other meteorological factors, like wind speed slowing down and haze setting in, the pollution level in Kolkata is also on a steady rise. "The transboundary movement of pollution is a great worry for us. We need to have mitigation measures for the entire region rather than city-specific," said a senior scientist of the West Bengal Pollution Control Board. There was a tremendous spike in the pollution level in the entire Indo-Gangetic plain, with Kolkata being at the tail end of the IGP, making it a major recipient of the pollutants flowing down the course of the river.
The dry northwesterly wind has started breezing in, and it is expected to push down the mercury by about a degree on the Celsius scale. On Thursday, at 22.1°C, the minimum temperature was a notch above normal. Both the maximum, which touched 30°C on Friday, and minimum temperatures are expected to slide by a degree each. "The weather will be pleasant," said an officer at the Regional Meteorological Centre, Kolkata. However, the chances of the mercury dipping below 20°C in some western districts are high, according to the Met office.
The dominance of PM2.5 in the city's ambient air is worrisome. "PM2.5 is the most dangerous, as it enters the lung unhindered and gets into the bloodstream. As noxious chemical particles piggyback these tiny particles, the health risk grows manifold with exposure to high concentrations of PM2.5 in the air," said Debasish Basu, a preventive care specialist. He said his clinics are facing a rush of patients with respiratory distress.