Air pollution skyrockets in Uttar Pradesh after Diwali fireworks

LUCKNOW: Major UP cities, including Lucknow, continued to reel under high air pollution levels on Saturday with the air quality being in the range of poor, very poor and severe categories.
The superfine particulate matter that started soaring after Diwali night (Thursday) led to a spike in the Air Quality Index (AQI) across most cities in the state. The AQI crossed the alarming 400-mark in about a dozen districts on Friday due to fireworks, vehicular emission and conducive weather conditions. A similar trend continued on Saturday.

In Lucknow, the situation was comparatively better, but still the air was in poor (AQI: 201-300) category. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, the city’s AQI on Thursday was 242, which went up to 278 as air quality worsened on Friday before dropping to 260 on Saturday.
Moderate winds kept air pollution level lower this year on Diwali as compared to 2019 and 2020, but the PM2.5 concentration in six localities of the city remained above permissible limits of 60 microgram set by the National Ambient Air Quality Standard.
Average PM2.5 concentration was highest at Talkatora with 208 microgram per cubic air, followed by Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (172), Kukrail picnic spot (132.7), Lalbagh (128.6), Gomtinagar (109.8) and Central School, Aliganj (100). Environmentalist Prof Venkatesh Dutta said, “Fireworks during Diwali and traffic snarls due to festive rush took a toll on clean air. People should adopt pollution control measures.”
11 UP cities among most polluted : The situation in central and west UP was worst with severe air quality (AQI above 400). In fact, Ghaziabad with AQI (466) and Noida (461) were the two most polluted places in the country followed by two cities of Haryana — Gurugram (456) and Faridabad (449). UP’s Baghpat (445), Hapur (445), Meerut (438) and Bulandshahr (433) also figured in the top 10. Overall, 11 UP cities (60%) were among the top 16 severely air-polluted places in India. Gorakhpur (386), Agra (390) and Muzaffarnagar (328) recorded ‘very poor’ air quality.