Air Quality in Kolkata Drops to 'Poor' Category After Diwali

Kolkata: Kolkata's air quality index (AQI) was 'poor' across different pockets on Friday morning, a day after Kali Puja and Diwali , an official said.

A West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) official told PTI, that AQI levels in terms of PM 2.5 were 173 in Ballygunje area and it hovered around 166 in pockets like Jadavpur, Beleghata, Sinthi on Friday morning and was classified as 'poor'.

It was 129 at Rabindra Sarobar, 115 at Fort William, 124 at Victoria Memorial.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe', the officials said.

"On October 31 night, from average 60 mg PM 2.5 at 6 pm, till 2 am the AQI PM 2.5 fluctuated crossing 250 mark in some places like Jadavpur, Kasba, Rabindra Bharati University, Beleghata which can be classified as very poor," the official said.

"Our guideline for use of green fireworks only and the clampdown on sale of clandestinely made illegal crackers made in districts like South 24 Parganas helped a bit to stop the AQI from crossing the 300 limit. But we urge the common people to be more responsive and stop use of banned fireworks and stop bursting crackers after 10 pm. It becomes difficult to put every single person in every household under surveillance," he said.

Kali Puja and Diwali were celebrated in West Bengal on Thursday with people bursting firecrackers.

The PCB's monitoring cell at Paribesh Bhavan was at work throughout Kali Puja night and monitored the situation.

Environmentalist and green activist Somendra Mohan Ghosh alleged that sound crackers were burst rampantly from 9 pm till 12 midnight and even after 1 am, in Dhakuria, Jadavpur, Ballygunje, Chetla, Beleghata, Sinthi and several other pockets of the city.

"I think if hourly monitoring was done for every pocket of the city the AQI would have even crossed 350 mark in many parts and gone down a little bit when the madness stopped in the morning hours," he said.

Ghosh said the decibel limit violation must also be included in the criteria as parameters to monitor sound pollution.

(This story is not edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed)