Lucknow inhales very poor air, Noida tops list

LUCKNOW: The air quality of nine out of 12 Uttar Pradesh cities monitored by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) was in ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ category on Sunday. A total of 168 cities of the country were monitored by CPCB in which the Air Quality Index (AQI) of all nine cities was in the range of 215 to 330.
The exposure to such air can lead to serious respiratory issues and health problems.
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According to environment experts, the main reason behind the air deterioration is construction activities, bad road, vehicular load and favourable climatic conditions like low temperature and slow wind speed that do not allow pollutants to disperse in the atmosphere. The air situation is likely to deteriorate further with a drop in temperatures.
Noida was the most polluted city in the state and third most polluted in the country with AQI of 330 along with Ballabhgarh, Haryana and Chhapra in Bihar which also shared the same AQI. The most polluted city in the country was Haryana city Dharuhera with AQI 345 while Delhi was the second most polluted.
Amongst UP cities after Noida, Greater Noida was second most polluted with AQI of 299 followed by Ghaziabad (288), Meerut (271), Jhansi (258), Baghpat (247), Lucknow (229), Muzaffarnagar (228) and Kanpur (215).
Meanwhile air quality of three UP cities was far much better with Gorakhpur having a satisfactory air quality with an AQI of 99 followed by Agra (107) and Varanasi (137) that had ‘moderate’ air quality.
“If the air pollution issue is not taken up seriously, several UP cities will figure in the list of cities with ‘severe’ air quality with AQI crossing the hazardous mark of 400,” said environmentalist Venkatesh Dutta.
He said that pollution control measures are the need of the hour. “Stubble and garbage burning should be banned with an immediate effect while the green net should be made mandatory for all construction sites. Other pollution control measures should also be adopted,” he added.