Air pollution returns due to lockdown relaxation

● THERE HAS been a drastic increase in the levels of particulate matter since the easing of the lockdown began. During the lockdown, the levels in the Bollarum industrial area, university of Hyderabad and the Nehru zoological park were 51.5ug/m3, 35.35ug / m3 and 63.22 ug/m3, respectively.

Air pollution, which was dwindling in the city due to the lockdown, is slowly rearing its ugly head.

As of Thursday evening, particulate matter 10 (PM

10) at the Bollarum industrial area was 148.22 milligrams per metric cube

(ug/m3). Similarly, in the university of Hyderabad, the level of PM 10 was

97.63 ug/ m3.

There has been a drastic increase in the levels of particulate matter since the easing of the lockdown began. During the lockdown, the levels in the Bollarum industrial area, university of Hyderabad and the Nehru zoological park were 51.5ug/m3,

35.35ug / m3 and 63.22

ug/m3, respectively. “The pollution in the air is now returning to its normal standards, just as it was prior to the lockdown. The air in the city has been pollution-free all this while because there were no vehicles on the road. But since they are back, we need to have stronger monitoring capabilities to weed out sources of pollution and take reparative measures,” Prof. Purushottam Reddy, a city-based environmentalist told Deccan Chronicle.

Making matters worse, the Nehru zoological park, which had breathed fresh and pollutant-free air, has begun registering trace amounts of carbonbased pollutants in its air.

If until May 12, it had zero benzene pollution, as of Thursday it has 1.13 micrograms of the pollutant. The presence of this pollutant is due to the movement of cars and motor vehicles, whose internal combustion engines do not process or burn the fuel completely.

As per a report compiled by the air quality monitoring stations, the zoo had zero benzene emissions since May 3 but on May 21, the levels rose to 1.68 ug/ m3.