AHMEDABAD: Mughal emperor Jehangir in 1617 AD could not avoid Ahmedabad’s dust problem and gave the city the moniker ‘Gardabad’, thanks to the city’s proximity to the great Thar desert and the Arabian sea. Till 20 years ago, which is 2009, mineral dust from the Thar constituted 70% of the total dust composition of the city while sea salts from the Arabian sea constituted 10%.
Today, a new study led by Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) and Gujarat Environment Management Institute (GEMI), Gandhinagar, claims a 40% decline in the mineral dust composition of the dust in Ahmedabad only to be replaced by dust formed from human activities. These include particles formed from tyre and brake wearing, industrial and vehicular exhaust dust, and burning and other harmful particles.
The study published in the Elsevier’s Journal of Environmental Pollution, the first of its kind, analysed particulate matter over four areas of the city — Bapunagar (middle-income residential area), Narol (industrial), Paldi (bus transport hub), Income Tax (huge running traffic) and Science City (posh residential area), respectively.
“Nearly 21% of the state’s industries are located in Ahmedabad,” claims the research study involving PRL’s Geosciences Division’s Neeraj Rastogi and Anil Patel and GEMI’s Utsav Gandhi and Nitasha Khatri. The researchers collected 34 fine dust samples using tissuquartz filters and used a respirable dust sampler for the purpose. After a mass fraction process the researchers found water-soluble zinc at Narol, nickel and manganese from Paldi.