Air quality dips as AQI touches 350 mark in Amritsar

After two years of breathing a bit easy on Diwali, Amritsar once again turned into a gas chamber with air quality index (AQI) touching 360 mark during the celebrations of the festival of lights.

As the festivities remained divided into two days this year, the unchecked bursting of firecrackers, coupled with farm fires and vehicular pollution remained major contributors to air pollution turning Amritsar into most polluted cities of Punjab during the week prior to Diwali.

The city’s AQI ranged between “moderate” and “poor” category throughout the week, while on Friday evening it reached 350, shifting to an unhealthy category. The AQI is not expected to improve over the weekend as Diwali celebrations would further add to the air pollution.

As per data available from the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), Amritsar district’s AQI was 350 (At 4 pm), with 2.5 particulate matter reportedly quite high.

This is worse than last two years when the AQI for Diwali night was recorded in the range of 250 to 282.

The PPCB had installed continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) in Amritsar as part of its initiative to monitor air quality in six major cities of Punjab that had been recording worse air quality over the past few years during the Diwali celebrations. Overall, Punjab has observed an average AQI reduction of 7.6 per cent in the past few years. But this year’s spike is not a good news for all stakeholders as farm fires and violations of the two-hour window for bursting firecrackers worsened the environmental conditions in the holy city.