HYDERABAD: Hyderabad woke up to a hazy morning on Monday as air quality of the city dipped due to bursting of crackers. Post-Diwali air in Hyderabad plunged to very ‘poor’ category on Monday, according to National Air quality Index. But because of poor coverage of real-time air quality monitoring stations in the city, a clear picture did not emerge of the toll crackers took on Hyderabad’s air.
Among the six locations where the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) has installed real time air quality monitoring stations in Hyderabad, only two stations were located close to residential areas - one at Sanathnagar industrial area and the other at Nehru Zoological Park in Old City.
A drastic fall in air quality could be seen only in Sanathnagar, where the 24-hour concentration of Particulate Matter2.5 (PM2.5) levels shot up to 129 micrograms per meter cube(ug/m3) on Monday, which is double the standard for 24-hour concentration of PM2.5 notified by the Central Pollution Control Board - 60ug/m3.
The impact of firecrackers can be observed if the hourly data of PM2.5 is observed at Sanathnagar, which was around 40-50ug/m3 till evening and started shooting up from the night. At 10 pm on Sunday, the PM2.5 levels peaked at 830ug/m3.
As per data recorded by the real-time air quality monitoring station installed at the zoo and Bollaram industrial area, the PM2.5 concentration in the air reached a peak of 187ug/m3 at around 10 pm in both the places. However, fall in air quality levels do not reflect in the data recorded by four other real-time air quality monitoring stations as they are located far from residential places - Pashamylaram, Icrisat and the University of Hyderabad.
Netizens vent ire over Diwali noise
Hyderabad: While denizens in several parts of the city violated rules by bursting crackers beyond the stipulated timings, netizens posted a number of complaints on social media seeking police intervention to prevent the ‘cracker menace’.
Earlier, the police had issued orders directing denizens to burst crackers only for two hours — from 8 pm to 10 pm. They had also warned that they would take action against violators. Upon receiving complaints online and offline, they said they would take action against offenders under the City Police Act. Officials responded to various tweets of netizens and alerted patrolmen to look into the disturbances. Patrolling was intensified in sensitive localities to prevent disturbances