Hyderabad: Pollution levels rise as normalcy returns

Punjagutta: Everything is slowly returning to normal in the city, and so is increase in vehicular pollution. There has been marked rise in pollution in last three months, impacting the Air Quality Index (AQI).

On March 1, the AQI recorded at different places fell under the category of 'unhealthy,' as compared to the first week of December 2020.AQI at areas such as Hyderabad Central University (near IT corridor) rose by several points. It was 124 in early December and rose to 151 by March 1.

Besides industrial pollution, increasing vehicular pollution is being blamed for the rising levels of AQI. "As such, we don't have particular statistics about the vehicular emission contributing to the air pollution in the city. But according to the data of the PCB in the year 2006, 46% of particulate matter of the vehicular emission was contributing to the air pollution. In such regards, we can estimate that it might rise by at least 20% this decade as the number of vehicles on the road has increased several times than before and it's time for all of us to maintain proper vehicular pollution check regularly to reduce contributing to the growing air pollution in the city," said D Prasad, Environmental Scientist (AIR), TSPCB.

Expressing disappointment over the dense smoke emitting from private vehicles, P Akash Goud, a nature lover, said that, "Poor maintenance of cars and bikes is one of the primary reasons for the cause of dense smoke. Many do not go for pollution checks and lack of monitoring and strict enforcement of rules is causing deterioration of air quality."

G Sai Kiran, a techie, urged that the government should take action on old vehicles such as 15 years old as they emit a lot of smoke.