AQI calendar: Kolkata breathed cleaner air during Jan-Feb
Times of India | 29 March 2025
Kolkata: An analysis of the city's AQI (Air Quality Index) calendar has revealed that Kolkata breathed easier during the second leg of winter (Jan-Feb). Unlike previous years, the city witnessed a significant improvement in air quality with a significant rise in ‘Satisfactory' and ‘Moderate' air quality days across Kolkata's seven Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) during this period. This improvement reflects the effectiveness of recent pollution control measures and favourable meteorological conditions.
There was a decline in ‘very poor' and ‘severe' days. From 2021 to 2025, there was a steady reduction in extreme pollution levels. Moreover, 2025 recorded no ‘very poor' or ‘severe' air quality day. The number of ‘moderate' air quality days rose sharply in 2025. Stations such as Rabindra Bharati University (RBU), Rabindra Sarobar (RBS), and Victoria Memorial showed significant improvement.
West Bengal Pollution Control Board chairman Kalyan Rudra said, "Our multi-pronged, hyper-local targeted mitigation measures have been very effective. These include the prevention of dust resuspension by targeted sprinkling, tighter regulation of automobile and industrial emissions, distribution of 10,000 smokeless chullas to poor households, and effective monitoring and prevention of crop-residue burning, which also contributed significantly to this improvement. Of course, favourable meteorological conditions also aided the better dispersion of pollutants. Continuous efforts are needed to sustain and further enhance these gains."
Station-wise air quality analysis showed that Ballygunge had a decline in ‘very poor' days from 10 in 2021 to 0 in 2025, while ‘moderate' air quality days increased from 3 in 2021 to 16 in 2025, and ‘poor' air quality days fell from 22 in 2024 to just 10 in 2025. Fort William (FW) experienced a complete disappearance of ‘very poor' and ‘severe' days by 2025, with ‘moderate' days surging from 9 in 2024 to 21 in 2025. Jadavpur saw ‘very poor' days drop from 16 in 2021 to 0 in 2025, while ‘moderate' days increased from 1 in 2021 to 21 in 2025. RBU recorded a drastic reduction in ‘very poor' days from 26 in 2021 to 0 in 2025, accompanied by a significant increase in ‘moderate' days from 6 in 2023 to 20 in 2025.
RBS experienced a drop in ‘very poor' days from 4 in 2021 to 0 in 2025, while ‘moderate' days surged from 7 in 2021 to 24 in 2025. Victoria Memorial saw ‘very poor' days drop from 7 in 2021 to 0 in 2025, with ‘moderate' days increasing to 23 in 2025. Salt Lake reduced ‘severe' days from 4 in 2021 to none in 2025, with ‘very poor' days steadily declining, leaving mostly ‘moderate' and ‘poor' days recorded in 2025.
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