Pune’s air quality down from ‘satisfactory’ to ‘poor’ a day after Diwali
According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the air quality index (AQI) on Tuesday morning in Pune stood at 210 which improved to overall 190 by 5 pm
A day after Diwali Laxmi Pujan celebration, Pune’s air quality on Tuesday morning slipped from “satisfactory” to “poor”, mostly due to firecracker bursting the previous evening.
According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the air quality index (AQI) on Tuesday morning in Pune stood at 210 which improved to overall 190 by 5 pm.
Kothrud and Shivajinagar were the worst affected. Kothrud, a suburb on the western part of Pune, saw PM2.5 at 300 showing “poor” at 5 pm while at Shivajinagar the PM2.5 was 224.
AQI between zero and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, and 401 and 500 severe.
On Monday, celebrated this year as the main Diwali day, the city reported “satisfactory” air quality index (AQI) with PM10 at 74 micrograms per cubic metre (g/m3) and PM2.5 at 45 g/m3 despite bursting firecrackers in the city.
BS Murthy, project director, IITM-SAFAR, said, “The city’s overall AQI is recorded at 190 which is moderate, although in the morning the AQI showed poor after bursting of crackers though it was not very high pollution levels.”
The real-time pollution data by SAFAR showed that the average PM10 (atmospheric particulate matter that has a diameter of less than 10 micrometre) in Pune was 95 μg/m3 and the PM2.5 (atmospheric particulate matter that has a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometre) was 60 μg/m3.
According to the advisory for Tuesday, people with heart or lung disease, older adults and children should reduce longer or heavy exertion and outdoor duty.