The air quality index of Hyderabad reached hazardous levels on Sunday evening as citizens burst crackers till late into the night, data collated from private and public air monitoring stations shows.
The AQI in Begumpet reached a peak of 538 at 2 a.m. early on Monday, a significant jump considering that the AQI was under 100 at 6 p.m., and touched 100 at 7 p.m. Elsewhere in the city, citizens reported fewer crackers this year.
“Every Deepavali we close all the doors and windows and after some time we can sense acrid smoke sneaking into the house. This year, there was no such smell,” said a resident of Srinivasa Colony near Ameerpet.
The air monitoring station at Sanathnagar was offline from Saturday evening and no fresh data was available.
Last year, Sanathnagar reported the worst air quality in the city with the AQI peaking at 10 p.m. when the monitoring station recorded 759 µg/m³. At Kokapet, the pollution due to PM10 was off the charts peaking at 488 µg/m³ at 10 p.m. and hovered around 301 µg/m³ well into Monday morning. At Kompally Municipal Office monitor, the PM 10 was the main pollutant reaching 500µg/m³ by 9.30 p.m. The PM 2.5 hovered between 469µg/m³ and 444µg/m³ for three hours in the night. Then the monitor went blank. It started functioning only in the morning.
The Telangana State Pollution Control Board released a statement on Diwali monitoring of pollutants on Monday.
“The concentrations have increased with respect to PM2.5 and PM10 when compared to normal day,” said the statement that showed PM2.5 averaged 119ug/m3 during the 24 hours as against the average of 30 ug/m3 on normal days. The PM10 averaged 188 in 24 hours as against the normally observed 85ug/m3. The other pollutants Sulphur Dioxide and Oxides of Nitrogen showed a marginal spike compared to normal days, according to TSPCB. “Concentrations increased moderately when compared to normal day and meet the standards,” says the PCB report.
A 2021 study on ‘Daily nonaccidental mortality associated with short-term PM2.5 exposures in Delhi, India’ showed that there a significant change in mortality due to short-term exposure to PM2.5. The study published in ‘Environmental Epidemiology’ however had the caveat that the results are ‘not generalizable to other parts of the country’.
On the positive side, the sound pollution averaged 59.3 dB as against the recorded high of 56.60 dB a week earlier in residential areas during night hours. But a significant deviation from the accepted standard of 45 dB.
