New Delhi: Diwali in Delhi was greener with favourable weather conditions but a little bit noisy and sparkled as people preferred imported fire crackers in the national capital this year, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The concentration of dust particles that can be breathed
like Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), Respirable Suspended
Particulate Matter (RSPM) and Nitrogen Oxide declined due to
favourable meteorological conditions like increase in
temperature and wind speed, says the pollution watchdog.
But Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) levels were up at six locations
due to use of more sulphur containing (lighting and imported)
crackers, according to the CPCB which had conducted the
monitoring at seven place for air pollution and nine places
noise pollution in Delhi, for air and noise pollution levels
respectively on the festival day.
Level of Sulphur dioxide (SO2) increased considerably at
as many as six locations as compared to last Diwali but it was
within the limits of prescribed residential standards, CPCB
director S D Makhijani said attributing high SO2 in air to use
of more sulphur containing (lighting and imported) crackers.
Maximum concentration of SO2 was observed at Janakpuri
in West Delhi at 42 microgram per cubic metre while lowest
was at Pitampura at 8 microgram per cubic meters.
Other important constituents like SPM, RSPM declined at all
the locations while Nitrogen Oxide (NO2) decreased at six
places due to lesser number of vehicles plying on the road,
Makhijani said adding NO2 was highest at Pitampura at 40
microgram per cubic metre against 33 microgram per cubic meter
last year.
Suspended level of pollutants have shown decreasing trend
at all the locations on the Diwali day as compared to the last
year.
Though the highest SPM level was observed at Shahzada Bagh
(976 microgram per cubic metre) while the lowest was at
Nizamauddin (522 microgram per cubic metre) it was
comparatively less than the last festival of lights.
"The temperature was at 25.2 degrees Celsius against 24.5
degrees Celsius, wind speed was .20 meters per second against
.13 meters per second, humidity decreased from 60.8 per cent
against 49.8 this festival," D Saha, senior scientist at the
CPCB said.
In monitoring of noise pollution levels, the data
revealed that ambient noise level not only increased at all
locations as compared to normal day but also in comparison to
the last year.
The noise levels were found to be ranging from 71 to 82
decibels against last year average of 67 to 85 decibels.
Further, in general, highest noise pollution levels were
observed during Diwali day.
The CPCB had conducted ambient water quality monitoring
at seven stations namely ITO, Pitampura, Siri Fort, Janakpuri,
Nizamuddin.
Similarly ambient noise level monitoring was carried out
at nine locations namely Lazpat Nagar, East Arjum Nagar,
Dilshad Garden, Ansari Nagar, Connaught Place and ITO during
round-the-clock on the festival day.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 22:53