Gurugram: Wind, rain clean up air, AQI ‘good’ after 3 weeks

GURUGRAM: The city’s air quality index (AQI) improved to ‘good’ on Friday as morning rain and favourable wind speeds led to dispersal of pollutants. The AQI was 41, compared to 73 (satisfactory) the day before and 238 (poor) on Wednesday.
The last time the city witnessed a ‘good’ air day before this was on September 16, when the AQI was 48. So far, Gurugram has seen six ‘good’ air days this year.
Between January and October 2022 till now, it has reported 110 ‘moderate’ days, 46 ‘satisfactory’ days, 20 ‘very poor’ days and 97 ‘poor’ days (see graphic). Last October, the city reported a single ‘good’ air day — the AQI was 36 on October 18, 2021.
Out of the four air monitoring stations located in the city, Sector 51 recorded an AQI of 36 on Friday, while it was 46 at Teri Gram. Data was unavailable at Vikas Sadan and Gwalpahari stations, and thus the present AQI data might not be showing an accurate picture of the air quality.
Meanwhile, the air quality is likely to improve because of an increase in wind speeds and change in direction in the coming days. “PM2.5 levels reported by continuous monitoring stations in Gurugram saw improvement from 150+ ug/m3 at 10 am yesterday to less than 40 ug/m3 at night. This can be attributed to the sudden change in wind direction from the northwest to southeast and east on Thursday afternoon at 3pm. For the next three days, the peak wind speed is forecast to be 14-16kmph in Delhi-NCR, causing moderate dispersion of pollutants,” said Tanushree Ganguly, programme lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
“Migration of a low-pressure area from the Bay of Bengal towards central India and its interaction with a western disturbance are also likely to cause light to moderate rainfall over many parts of north India, including Delhi-NCR. Strong easterly winds, combined with rainfall in the coming days, are likely to help AQI stay in the ‘moderate’ and ‘satisfactory’ categories,” she added.
Moreover, experts pointed out that civic bodies need to take action throughout the year to ensure that the AQI is ‘good’, not only depend on meteorological factors to get its pollutants removed from the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, a senior Haryana State Pollution Control Board official said stage 1 of the Graded Response Action plan (GRAP) for NCR is being implemented as directed by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). NCR states have been directed to impose heavy fines on persons responsible for open burning of garbage, strictly enforce all pollution control regulations in industries and power plants and ensure that all brick kilns remain closed in Delhi-NCR.
CAQM has also directed periodic mechanised sweeping or water sprinkling on roads with heavy traffic and dust generation potential, as well as strict vigilance and no tolerance for visible emissions.
NCR states have been told to stop plying of visibly polluting vehicles by impounding or heavy fines, ensure strict vigilance and enforcement of pollution under control (PUC) norms, stringently enforce dust control rules in construction activities and close down non-compliant sites, and deploy traffic police for smooth traffic flow.
GRAP has now been classified under four different stages of adverse air quality in Delhi reflected through the AQI. Stage 1 is when AQI is ‘poor’ (201-300), Stage 2 when it is ‘very poor’ (301-400), Stage 3 ‘severe’ (AQI 401-450) and Stage 4 ‘severe plus’ (AQI over 450).