Nagpur: It was a shocker for citizens of Nagpur when at 12 Noon on January 5, 2023, the AQI value of Nagpur city was reported as 330, which comes under very poor category. AQI values can be defined as Good : 0-50, Satisfactory : 51 – 100, Moderately Polluted : 101-200, Poor : 201 -300, Very Poor : 301 -400 & Severe : 401-500.
On 5th Jan 2023, Nagpur city air quality data shows, PM 2.5 were reported as Max 315 & Min 306, PM 10 as Max 202 & Min 143, NO2 as Max 34 & Min 13, NH3 Max 5 & Min 5 & SO2 Max 53 & Min 11
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Monday 10 Feb. 2025
Talking to Nagpur Today, Surbhi Jaiswal, Team Lead, Green Vigil Foundation said, the main reason for sudden high AQI is temperature inversion, which is a common phenomenon in winter when the warmer air acts as a lid, trapping pollutants near the ground and making them unable to disperse until the weather changes. As a result, the compounds end up reacting with each other to form other pollutants.
Surbhi also added, there are other major contributing factors like bonfire -wood & garbage burning across city due to cold weather, undergoing construction activities etc. It is apparent from the data that sudden hike in AQI is due to PM 2.5 and PM10, especially PM 2.5, which has been reported significantly high with maximum as 351 and minimum as 306. Other pollutants like NO2 NH3, SO2, CO seems to be in limit.
Surbhi further added, the data reported is of GPO Civil Lines area, with no factories around, vehicle movement is low, less construction activity and most importantly the area has huge green cover. If civil lines area reported “very poor air quality” then other part of the city must be experiencing much worst air quality. She also added, it is not correct to judge the AQI of the city by just one station data, we need atleast 10 stations data to define AQI of a city like Nagpur, Surbhi added.
