Dusty wind chokes Gurugram, makes air unfit to breathe

Gururgam: Not only are the residents of Gurugram grappling with extremely hot weather but they seems to have no respite as far as breathable air quality is concerned. The dusty winds in the city have again resulted in air quality plummeting to very poor category.

On Wednesday the particulate levels of 2.5 microns in Gurugram was registered at 250 micrograms per cubic metres. This is way above the standard limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre set by the world health organisation (WHO).

"Dust particles from the Thar in Rajasthan are blowing towards this region. That is a major cause of continuous deterioration of air quality. Also, wind direction is west-south-west, leading to the transportation of more dust particles from the desert," said a Met official.

If weather conditions were not favourable for the air to breathe what made the matters worse was the dust and vehicular pollution in the city. There was a high concentration of poisonous gases like nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide that are mostly emitted by the vehicles. In order to save the cost, there are a large number of vehicles especially the three wheelers that use low quality fuel that further causes more harm to the people breathing the air. Large scale construction activities and the receding green cover has resulted in dust being the major contributor to pollution in the Millennium city.

"There is a need for sustained and committed effort to deal with such a major challenge. Unfortunately, a few days of favourable weather conditions cannot help us escape from the big challenge that surrounds us. The citizens and the government must collaborate together to fight this menace. Unfortunately, even though the awareness about pollution has improved, the proactiveness about it has not changed much," said Shweta Narang, a city resident.

Gurugram recently made the headlines after it was declared as the most polluted city in the world by a prominent non-governmental organisation.