Air pollution spiked in small towns during lockdown: CSE

NEW DELHI: Air pollution increased in small towns and cities outside Delhi and NCR in the Indo-Gangetic Plain region last year, an analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment(CSE) shows, highlighting the poor state of air in India’s urban areas in a year when normal activity was disrupted for at least some time on account of the coronavirus disease pandemic and the 68-day-long lockdown imposed to slow its spread.

Even though average PM 2.5 levels for summer and monsoon months last year were considerably lower than in 2019, winter pollution levels increased in Punjab and Haryana , leading to an increase in the annual average PM 2.5 levels. PM 2.5 refers to particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns or smaller still. Bigger cities and towns including Delhi recorded a significant reduction in annual PM 2.5 concentrations during the year. Delhi recorded an almost 13% improvement in 2020 compared to 2019. The analysis by CSE shows that air pollution levels spiked in certain parts of the Indo-Gangetic plains Fatehabad in northern Haryana is the worst performer with 35% increase from 2019 levels. It is followed by Bhatinda at 14%; Agra 9%; Khanna 7%; Mandi Gobindgarh 6%; Moradabad 5.5% and Kurukshetra 1% .

But in other parts, the levels decreased. Sirsa recorded a 44% decrease in PM 2.5 levels; Varanasi 31%; Gaya 27%; Muzaffarpur 13%; Delhi 13% and Hisar 12% .

The findings suggest that the variation may have been on account of adverse local weather conditions, but that some of the spike can only be explained by the burst of activity after the economy opened up after the lockdown. CSE used real-time data for 26 cities in the Gangetic plains from the CPCB Central Control Room for Air Quality Management for the analysis.

The analysis highlights that Fatehabad which recorded the highest increase in PM 2.5 concentrations last year and Sirsa which recorded the highest improvement are 40 kms apart.

“Therefore, this massive variation cannot be attributed to meteorology and has to do with local factors. The annual average of these towns along with other smaller towns such as Hisar and Jind in the north-west are heavily influenced by episodic polluasks tion caused by burning of crop stubble. The influence is so strong that it can elevate their monthly PM2.5 levels for November to that of Delhi’s, but unlike Delhi, these towns are directly exposed to the smoke.

The elevated November levels do not linger on for the rest of the winter in these towns,” said Avikal Somvanshi, programme manager in CSE’s Urban Lab team of the Sustainable Cities programme. “This brings out the impact of the extraordinary disruption that 2020 has caused. Despite the dramatic reduction in air pollution during the lockdown, pollution has bounced back across the region post-lockdown unmasking the high impacts of local and regional pollution,” explained Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE.