Winter Pollution on rise in smaller cities

Winter Pollution 

According to the Centre for Science and Environment, smaller and upcoming cities are emerging as pollution hotspots. PM 2.5 in most of the cities are at hazardous levels.

Winter Pollution on rise: The Hindu

PM 2.5 worsened in 43 out of 99 cities whose winter air in two years, 2019 and 2020, was compared by the Centre for Science and Environment. Among these, only 19 cities registered "substantial improvement".

 

Before the lockdowns were significantly eased, several cities reported improved pollution levels but by winter it reached its previous levels of pre lockdown period. With this, it was stated that local and regional factors play a vital role in a city's pollution levels.

The cities with the worst pollution levels in 2020 over 2019 in Gurugram, Lucknow, Jaipur, Vishakhapatnam, Agra, Navi Mumbai, etc. In the winter season, cool weather traps and spikes daily pollution, especially in north Indian cities.

 

Now let’s discuss in detail why the pollution level in winter increases. We know that in winter air around the surface is cold and due to this fact it’s much denser than the warm air and hence it traps the pollution which along with the dense air does not move much. In this way, pollutants are not as free to escape and scatter in the cold dense air. Due to this, air pollution in winter remains in place for much longer and is breathed in at a higher rate than during the summer

 

Average PM 2.5 levels in summer 2020 were much lower than that in 2019 due to nationwide lockdowns. However, PM 2.5 levels in winter have risen to much higher levels as compared to previous levels. There are demands for quicker regional reforms to curb pollution levels from industry, vehicle, power plants, and waste burning to curb the winter pollution.

 

This analysis is part of the air pollution tracker initiative of the Centre of Science and Environment (CSE). It's based on publicly available granular real-time data from the (CPCB) Central Pollution Control Board. This data is taken from 248 official stations under the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS) spread across 115 cities in 22 States and Union Territories. The analysts only considered cities that had readings for both years in at least 75% of the winter days.

 

When the cities were ranked from the most to the least polluted cities, 23 of the most polluted cities are from north India. Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh is the most polluted city in North India. Satna, Vijaypura, Chikkamangaluru, and Maihar are the only cities that have met the national 24-hour standard.

 

Analysts emphasized that rather than megacities, it was the smaller and upcoming cities that were emerging as pollution hotspots. The report states clearly that this winter pollution problem is not confined to megacities or one specific region. This problem is present everywhere and requires urgent and deliberate action.

 

We have witnessed many environmental changes in the past and will continue to see them in the future as well unless we do some constructive efforts to control them. We should avoid burning garbage, prevent landfill fires, use public transportation, and many more to minimize winter pollution.