With relaxations, air quality starts deteriorating in Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: The air quality has deteriorated since the UT administration announced relaxations in the fourth leg of the lockdown.
From air quality index (AQI) at a good level during lockdown 2 and 3, the quality has now entered the moderate category. The AQI on Saturday was recorded at 135, which falls under moderate category.
The air had improved a lot during the restrictions and, at 4pm on March 27, it was cleanest in the country, with the index at 17.
After April 14, the city’s air quality fell from good to satisfactory level. The city’s air quality index was at a good level between March 24, when the curfew was imposed in the city, to April 13. But since April 14, the city’s air quality has started deteriorating and had crossed the level of 50 and the AQI was between 56 and 80.
National Clean Air Programme will help the UT have two more air monitoring stations—in sectors 26 and 50. On July 16, 2019, UT administrator V P Singh Badnore inaugurated the PU station that measures air on eight parameters.
AQI can be termed as the numerical scale used to assess air quality with regard to human health and the environment. It is used by to assess the quality of air in a particular region on a daily basis. The main focus of AQI is to calculate the effects of air in a particular region to the health of the people breathing it. AQI mainly looks for major pollution-causing factors in the air.