‘Hazardous rise in pollution level post Diwali festivities in Kashi’

Varanasi: Kashi has witnessed a hazardous rise in the pollution levels post Diwali festival, claimed the Climate Agenda, an NGO working for environment protection. The NGO released a post Diwali Air Quality report on Varanasi air on Wednesday.
According to the report, fire crackers badly impacted the city’s air quality, and Kashi was found to be six times more polluted as per the permissible limits of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Climate Agenda monitored 12 locations. Englishiya Line, Pandeypur, Sarnath, and Lahurabir localities were the most polluted, while Mahmoorganj and Sigra areas remained relatively better.
According to the WHO standards, the PM 2.5 should be 15 and PM 10 should be 45, while the Indian standard for PM 2.5 is 60 and PM 10 is 100. Similarly, the Air Quality Index (AQI) is a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. An AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality. The AQI values at or below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory.
The report suggested that Englishiya Line was the worst polluted with the AQI value of 273, which falls in the category of ‘very unhealthy’ (201-300). It was followed by Pandeypur (266), Sarnath (256), Lahurabir (240), Ashapur (233), Maidagin (231), Lanka (216), and Chowk (206). The localities including Sonarpura (200) and Godowlia (173) are in the category of ‘unhealthy’ (151-200), while Mahmoorganj (123) came in the category of ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ (101-150). Only Sigra area of the city with the AQI of 96 was in the category ‘moderate’ (51-100).
Ekta Shekhar of the Climate Agenda said that the NGT’s conditional ban on fire crackers aimed at protecting the health of children, senior citizens and all COPD patients as well as the natural air. People who suffered Covid 19 were also at risk.
The NGT had advised the cities having air quality issues to stay away from the deadly fire crackers, as the studies show that poor air quality may hamper recovery of Covid-19 and other COPD patients.