MUMBAI: The city's air quality was the worst in the state during Diwali this year, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board's nine-city air quality analysis has found.
MPCB's Diwali 2017 report stated that the air quality index (AQI) in Mumbai on Diwali (October 20) was 219 (moderate category). This is almost double of Mumbai's AQI of 115 on the same day in 2016.
MPCB monitored 24-hour averages of AQI during Diwali in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik, Nagpur, Airoli, Chandrapur, Solapur and Dombivli. "The overall trend in air quality status in Maharashtra is moderate, which shows less impact of festival celebration and firecracker bursting, as opposed to existing sources of air pollution such as vehicular traffic and construction dust in those cities," MPCB's report stated. Dombivli and Nagpur were next in line in terms of pollution levels, and Airoli was the cleanest through the three days.
The 0-50 level is considered good, 51-100 satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300 poor, 301-400 very poor and 401 and above severe, as per the AQI scale.
The day before Diwali (October 18) too, the AQI was 206, while on Diwali day it was 196. Pollution levels swept off due to strong wind on the following days. On October 21 and 22, the city's AQI improved to 98 and 79 respectively.
MPCB officials said it wasn't only crackers that added to pollution levels, and it could be due to increased vehicular emissions due to the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) strike during that period. "There was a calm in the atmosphere when winds were extremely calm, hence pollution levels were high. There was also a public transport strike due to which people may have used more private vehicles adding to emissions. Firecracker emission added to the pollution but it seemed much lower due to awareness," said S C Kollur, chief scientist, MPCB.
System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) too recorded higher pollution levels in the city compared to two previous years.
