AQI in non-attainment cities in Bengal sees improvement in past 4 yrs: Data

KOLKATA: The air quality index (AQI) in the non-attainment cities in Bengal has witnessed significant improvement in the last four years, according to data of the Central Pollution Board after four years of the country’s flagship National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

None of the non-attainment cities in the state figure among the top ten polluting cities on the parameter of PM 2.5 while only Durgapur (8th place) features in the list on the parameter of PM10 pollutant.

Kolkata, Howrah, Asansol, Bidhannagar, Haldia, Durgapur are among the 131 cities in the country which are called non-attainment cities, as they did not meet the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for 2011-15 under the National Air Quality Monitoring Program (NAMP).

In 2019, three cities in Bengal — Howrah, Asansol and Kolkata ranked 7th, 9th and 10th respectively among the non-attainment cities based on PM 2.5. In respect of PM 10 pollutants, Howrah was the only city in Bengal occupying the 9th spot. Howrah witnessed an improvement by 15.94 per cent, Kolkata 10.71 and Asansol 1.67 in respect to the PM 2.5 pollution parameter of 2019. Howrah in 2022 occupies 20th spot, Kolkata 30th and Asansol 17th.

According to the data collated by NCAP Tracker, among the cities, Delhi ranked the most polluted in 2022, with an annual average PM 2.5 concentration of 99.71 ug/m3, said the report.

According to the Tracker, most cities in the top 10 list of 2022 are in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. “This demonstrates that real and long-term solutions lie in an airshed approach to address the need for better air pollution management in the region beyond Delhi. It also reiterates the need to check pollution at source to obtain maximum benefit from pollution mitigation efforts,” the report said.

The Union Government launched the NCAP on January 10, 2019 to address air pollution in these non-attainment cities and has released almost Rs 6,897 crore for this.The country’s current annual average safe limits for PM 2.5 and PM 10 are 40 micrograms/per cubic metre (ug/m3) and 60 micrograms/per cubic metre.

Abhijit Chatterjee, an air pollution scientist associated with the Bose Institute said that several measures have been taken up by the state Pollution Control Board and Kolkata Municipal Corporation to mitigate air pollution.

“We need micro level air quality monitoring and , unless stringent actions are taken against solid waste burning and construction/demolition dust emissions by the builders, no policies, no strategies would work out. If we really want to see the face of success of NCAP, robust and bold administrative policies are required in addition to robust scientific policies,” he added.