Gurgaon: Air pollution increased slightly on Saturday in the city, even though the concentration of smog was less as compared to the past three days.
The PM2.5 has been recorded at 115.25 g/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre), while it was 109.50 g/m³ on Friday. Besides, the level of carbon monoxide increased from 0.85 g/m³ on Friday to 1.73 g/m³ on Saturday.
While experts expect the pollution levels to increase further with a dip in temperature and the end of the odd-even scheme, officials of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) call it an "insignificant" change. "When the odd-even formula was applicable in Delhi, the concentration of PM 2.5 was between 98 and 110 g/m³ in the NCR region. However, on Saturday, it has increased five notches, despite being a relatively sunny day and the concentration of smog remaining less. Also due to vehicular pollution, concentration of carbon has gone up," said Debjani Ghosh, a city-based environmentalist.
HSPCB officials, on the other hand, said, "We can't say that pollution has increased in a day. The level of PM2.5 keeps fluctuating like the level of most suspended particles in the air. This is a negligible increase due to various factors, including wind speed, amount of fog, humidity, sunlight and most importantly temperature. It is a mere fluctuation in the level of particulate matter."
Experts also expressed concern over the decreased visibility on the highway due to increase in air pollution. "In winters, pollutants cause a lot of smog as they remained trapped in the lower atmosphere. The major problem is that visibility on the national highway and state highway becomes poor. There will surely be increase in concentration of carbon due to increase in vehicular pollution in the NCR region," said NiranjanRaje, a member of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA).
The officials of HSPCB, on the other hand, said that low wind speed is mainly responsible for decrease in visibility and smog level in the lower atmosphere. "The speed of wind in the last three days has remained at 11 km/hour, while the average speed is 140-150 km/hour. Low wind speed leads to a decrease in visibility. Pollutants have a little role to play," said an official of HSPCB.
