CSE report: State has highest number of stations that do not comply with PM 2.5
Only 13% of India's cities and towns have air quality monitoring stations, according to a report by the Centre for Science and Environment. Maharashtra has the highest number of monitoring stations that do not meet pollution mapping criteria, and only 12% of cities comply with national air quality standards. This leaves nearly half of the country's population outside the air quality monitoring grid. The report highlights concerns over the performance of monitoring stations, particularly for key pollutants like PM2.5 and ozone. Efforts are being made to increase the number of monitoring stations in Maharashtra and other districts.
The latest report on the ‘Status of air quality monitoring in India’ published by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) last week revealed that only 13% of India’s census cities and towns have air quality monitoring stations.
According to the report, Maharashtra has the highest number of monitoring stations that do not meet the particulate matter (PM) 2.5 pollutant mapping criterion.
There are about 15 air pollution monitoring stations in Pune. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) established five of them in Pune City and Pimpri-Chinchwad, while SAFAR (System of Air quality and Weather Forecasting And Research)-Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has 10 stations in both cities. In addition, five more MPCB stations are in the testing phase. However, citizens continue to face difficulties in obtaining real-time and archive data on air pollution.
According to the report, only 12 per cent of the 4,041 census cities and towns have air quality monitoring systems that are compliant with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and the clean air targets under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and only 200 cities monitor all six key criteria pollutants.
SO2, NO2, PM10, PM2.5, CO, and Ozone are examples of pollutants.
This leaves nearly 47 per cent of the country’s population outside the maximum radius of the air quality monitoring grid (manual and real-time combined) and 62 per cent outside that of the real-time monitoring network.
Regarding the Maharashtra air quality monitoring network, the CSE research revealed that, according to the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) standard, real-time stations must send data every 15 minutes, and a complete set of data is deemed at the value of 75 or more per cent of scheduled monitoring.
However, the assessment suggests that Maharashtra (20 stations) has the highest number of stations that do not reach the 75 per cent valid 24-hour values in 2022, followed by Karnataka (16 stations) and Gujarat (12 stations). In 2022, all stations in six states and three UTs met the 75 per cent valid 24-hour value.
Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Punjab, Tripura, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Puducherry are among them.
Avikal Somvanshi, lead researcher from this report said, “We have analysed data available on CPCB’s portal and from previous publications,” We discovered that numerous stations do not comply with the standards and that several stations have been inactive for a long time, with no data submitted from these stations in recent times.”
He noted that, while the number of manual and automatic monitoring stations in Maharashtra has expanded over the last decade, the performance of these stations remains a source of worry, particularly for key pollutants like PM 2.5 and ozone.
Nitin Shinde, sub-regional officer, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, Pune said, “Efforts are being made to increase the number of monitoring stations in the state,” said Nitin Shinde, sub-regional officer, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, Pune. Recently, the city of Pune introduced five new automatic monitoring stations as well as a mobile van. Similarly, additional stations are being built in other districts.”
He stated that the majority of existing stations are manual stations that require a person to go to the station, collect samples, and send them to the lab for examination.
Methodology of the Report
The CSE evaluation study included 883 manual stations and 409 real-time stations. This has taken into account both manual monitoring as part of the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) and real-time monitoring as part of the CAAQMS.
It also examined publicly available data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) websites and publications as of December 31, 2022.
This report assessed the adequacy of the air quality monitoring network and air quality data, spatial distribution, population coverage, and data completeness throughout the country.
