Punjab Post Daily Online Newspaper & Print Media
Amritsar, 15 November (Punjab Post Bureau)- An observational mobile station for air quality monitoring was inaugurated by Director Research, Professor Tarlok Singh Banipal, Director Research of Guru Nanak Dev University in the university premises. Dr. Satwinderjeet Kaur, Head of the department, Prof. Avinash Nagpal, Dr. Renu Bhardwaj, Dr. Adarsh Pal Vig, Dr M S Bhatti and a large number of faculty members & students were present on this occasion. This Mobile unit will assess the background pollution in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. The seven cities monitoring started from Chandigarh, Fatehgarh Sahib, Amritsar (now stationed till 15 November, 2016), then to Mahendragarh, Rohtak and Hisar. This mobile van is stationed near velodrome in the university.
Air quality is getting worsened during winter period due to inversion phenomenon (minimal dispersal of air due to cap created by temperature difference). Further, smoke emitting from different sources (coal burning, agriculture, solid waste and vehicular) in presence of catalysts like ozone and peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) further aggravates the problem.
Metrological research based organization Indian Institute of Tropical Metrology (IITM), Pune is conducting air quality assessment over North India under SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research) project. Research and forecasting unit at IITM, Pune will process the air and weather data by super computing facility at Pune and use it for predicting air quality index (AQI).
Although, future prediction is based on local geography and climatic conditions like wind direction, wind speed, humidity, temperature and rainfall.
In the recent past, the Air Quality Index (see AQI Table) reached the highest level (Severe level) in Delhi and became cause of major concern. The root cause of this problem is uncontrolled burning (power plants, industries, vehicular traffic, solid waste burning along with seasonal stubble burning). The problem generally aggravates if meteorological conditions are not favourable and there is limited vertical mixing of air. One should not forget the London Smog disaster in December, 1952 in which 4000 persons died and thousands hospitalized as severe smog engulfed the city with no wind and sunlight for four days. Thus, it is advised not to cross the self cleaning limit of the atmosphere.
Amritsar data revealed higher concentration of Particulate Matter (PM) of 10 and 2.5 micron size (PM10 and PM2.5) as per World health Organization (WHO) report released in May, 2016, the annual average PM10 and PM2.5 concentration in Amritsar was 202 and 108 microgram per cubic meter of year 2012 against the permissible limit of 60 and 40 microgram/m3 by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines. Although, pollutants like ozone, oxides of sulfur, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, benzene are within safe limits. Amritsar’s air is relatively clean in comparison with Delhi having PM2.5 (average for Delhi) is 386 µg/m3 (Very Poor level) and Ozone 126 µg/m3 (Moderate level) at 12.25 PM on 11 November, 2016 as available through SAFAR-India Air Quality Service, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India.
Faculty of the Department of Botanical and Environmental Science deliberated on this important health concern and suggested for policy framework related to emission inventory with digital surveillance of pollution sources. Prof. Ajaib Singh Brar, Vice-Chancellor appreciated the efforts put by the department and advised the faculty to play a proactive role in environment management.
