‘Kolkata’s air quality improves during Jan-March 2023 period’
The city has witnessed significant improvement
in air quality from 133.9 μg/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre) in 2019 to 69.4 μg/m3 in 2023 during the period January to March, according to a recent air pollution study that analysed two sets of air quality data — PM 2.5 for the last one year (October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023 ) in NCR and other cities of NCAP (National Clean Air Programme)and PM 2.5 data during winter
(October to March). The findings of the study reveal that during January– March (2020, 2021, 2022), Kolkata’s air quality was recorded at 76.7 μg/m3, 101.7 μg/m3 and 77.5 μg/m3 respectively that dipped further to 69.4 μg/m3 this year (January-March 2023). The findings assume significance as six major capitals — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Patna — are known to have air quality challenges during winter. The air pollution ranking report released by Respirer Living Sciences and Climate Trends also lists out the top 10 most polluted places in the country
already under the NCAP and the top 10 places with the cleanest air quality, showcasing the existing trends. Delhi tops India’s most polluted cities list, followed by Patna and Muzaffarpur. The list also has Nalbari in Assam, Asansol in Bengal and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. Asansol has only one air quality monitor that records the NCAP data. It had a PM 2.5 concentration of 74 μg/m3 which is 2.4 times Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) safe limit and almost 15 times of the WHO’s safe limit. Asansol is one of three cities where air pollution has risen alarmingly by 49 per cent deteriorating during the entire peak pollution season of 2022–23 as compared to a year earlier. From October 2019 to September 2020, PM 2.5 concentration in Asansol was 55.81 which rose to 61.71 during October 2020 to September 2021, dipped to 49.7 during October 2021 to
September 2022 and shot up to 74 from October 2022 to September 2023. “For a perfect and better understanding of a city’s air pollution scenario, we need several monitoring stations that would cover and represent the entire city. The major issue of Asansol is the dust, solid fuel and waste burning as well as its proneness to regional transport from Bihar and Jharkhand,” Dr Abhijeet Chatterjee, associate professor of Bose Institute said. The report’s calculations are based on data gathered by the government’s air quality monitoring stations using daily and annual averages. The rankings are based on the data collected from the CPCB website for the 131 non-attainment cities identified by the NCAP.
