Air quality drops after unlock 1

Places with lesser traffic register high pollution levels due to presence of industries

Going against the popular belief that vehicles lead to more pollution, a study conducted by Ambee, an environment intelligence company, noted that it was places like Bowrampet, Mallampet, Nizampet and Bachupally, which have comparatively lesser traffic, that register the highest pollution levels, as they are rife with industries.

Alwal, Police Lines, SP Road, MG Road and King’s Way, which are usually choc-abloc with traffic, registered the minimal amount of air pollution.

The city had the cleanest air ever recorded during the lockdown, from March 25 to June 7. In Jubilee Hills and Gachibowli, the Air Quality Index (AQI) had fallen to single digits. And that’s not all.

Even the temperature had dropped by two degrees Celsius in these areas. It was not just a redux in vehicular movement, but even anthropogenic activities like burning waste or garbage that took a nosedive.

“This just goes to show that the cause of pollution is different from what is sources are perceived to be. We saw a pattern in the pollution levels, in which we saw that it was in coherence with the population and traffic movement,” Madhusudan Anand, cofounder of Ambee, told Deccan Chronicle.

The places that were monitored were not chosen at random; they were places that had shown a significant change in the level of pollution. Since the company had been monitoring the city’s pollution levels over the last four years, they learnt of areas and places where the pollution levels varied.

“We have been monitoring Hyderabad since the year

2016, and it has shown a rise in the traffic movement and construction activity of about

20 to 30 per cent every year. While there has been no significant rise in the population, the rise in the pollution rate is the highest when compared to other cities,” he added.