To address environmental issues, individual efforts need to galvanise into a collective goal for the government and society as whole.
NEW DELHI: Winter's arrival is often followed by grim stories on smog episodes and severe air pollution in north Indian cities. This popular perception of forever deteriorating air quality may be a partial picture. An analysis of data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB's) national air quality monitoring programme (NAMP) shows surprising trends.
A little over half (52%) of the 482 stations for which continuous data was available have recorded an improvement or no change in annual average levels of PM 10 (coarse polluting particles) between 2013 and 2016. The road to clean air remains very long, as despite this improvement more than 80% of these stations have PM 10 concentrations higher than the annual safe standard of 60 g/m3.
Much of this data is only indicative and cannot establish reliable trends because only at 76 of these stations was air quality monitored for at least 104 days a year as recommended by CPCB's guidelines. But even among the 76 stations, 48 showed improvement and 28 recorded a decline in air quality.
Among these 76 stations, the ones in Punjab's Khanna municipality showed the highest decrease while a station in Ujjain saw the highest increase in PM10 concentration. Stations at Ludhiana, Guwahati, Allahabad, Nagpur and Nashik were among those that saw a decline in PM10 concentration. Those that recorded increases were located at Shimla, Vishakhapatnam, Chandigarh, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Agra. Once again, despite the improvement, PM10 concentration was higher than the safe level in 37 of the 48 stations.
If we consider all 482 stations, air pollution levels have peaked massively in cities like Delhi, Tuticorin, Dehradun, Nanded and Dhanbad. In the port and industrial city, Tuticorin, PM 10 levels increased from 87 micrograms per cubic metres to 245 micrograms per cubic metres, in Dehradun's ISBT station from 178 in 2013 to 302 in 2016. Similarly, Bhopal's Hamidia Road saw significant improvement from 333 in 2013 to 110 in 2016. Stations in Alwar, Kochi and Kolkata also recorded significant declines, though none of them met the 104-day monitoring guidelines.
CPCB officials declined to comment on why air quality was not adequately monitored but explained "We try to assess the trends based on whatever data we have till now. Most state pollution control boards are highly short staffed, they do not have adequate funds, while for some air quality is not a priority issue."
The officials said that "success stories" haven't been documented but they know that some pollution control boards are working with municipal authorities and their development bodies to ensure improvement in air pollution levels. "Our air quality goal is the notified air quality standard. Land use planning and development needs to be done with air quality goals in mind. We know many stations in Kerala, in Maharashtra are improving because of their good land use planning," said Dipankar Saha, head of CPCB's air lab.
Manju Mohan, head of IIT Delhi's Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, cautions that the data from the 482 stations may actually be indicative of increasing air pollution levels.
(This article was originally published in The Times of India)
