Noida, Ghaziabad most polluted cities in country, remain ‘severe’ for fourth day

Noida: The air quality of Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad worsened on Monday due to high humidity that trapped pollutants. While Ghaziabad remained the most polluted city in the country, Noida and Greater Noida tied for the second position.

Noida and Ghaziabad’s air remained ‘severe’ for the fourth day, while Greater Noida that showed some improvement on Sunday and slipped into ‘very poor’ category entered the ‘severe’ zone again on Monday.

The pollution monitoring agencies stated that though intrusion of smoke from stubble burning in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana is negligible, the humidity levels soared to 100% making air heavier and trapping the pollutants.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, on Monday, out of 108 cities across the nation, only five cities – Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Bulandshahr and Kanpur – were under ‘severe’ category.

The air quality index (AQI) of Noida on Monday was 422 against 402 a day earlier, both ‘severe’, as per the CPCB data. Similarly, Ghaziabad continued being top most polluted city of country for the fourth day in row with an AQI of 438 against 428 a day earlier. Greater Noida’s air quality worsened from ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ again with Monday seeing an AQI of 422 against 396 a day earlier.

AQI between 101 to 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 ‘very-poor’ and above 400 is considered ‘severe’.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the wind speed increased on Monday and will continue to increase slightly on Tuesday as well. However, the directions are variable and humidity will be high as well, IMD said.

“The wind speed on Monday was 10kmph, against 8kmph a day earlier. The direction was north-westerly but it will variable and keep changing for next two days. The humidity will also remain high due to which ventilation may remain low,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head, regional weather forecasting centre, IMD.

The fine particles or PM2.5 levels also remained five to six times the safe standards, the CPCB data showed.

PM2.5 for past 24 hours in Noida was recorded at 293.76 microgrammes per cubic metres (µg/m³) against 259.43 µg/m³ a day earlier. The PM2.5 for Greater Noida was 298.70 µg/m³ against 255.12 a day earlier, while for Ghaziabad it was 289.68 µg/m³ against 309.43 a day earlier. The safe limit for PM2.5 is 60 µg/m³.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), AQI is likely to recover slightly on Tuesday. “Surface winds are forecasted to increase and air quality is likely to improve during the day but within the very poor category. Due to marginally better ventilation conditions, AQI is likely to further improve tomorrow. AQI is likely to stay in the middle-end of the very poor category on 9th and 10th December,” said the SAFAR statement on Monday.

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