Lockdown, rain bring down pollution level in Kolkata

Kolkata, Apr 29 () Very little commercialactivity during the over one-month-long lockdown and thespells of rain have improved the air quality in Kolkata, anofficial of the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB)said on Wednesday.

The Air Quality Index monitoring station at Ballygunjein south Kolkata recorded an AQI of 33 (PM 2.5) at 2 PM onWednesday, which is 'good' in environmental parlance.

At the same time, readings at the AQI stations ofBidhannagar, Jadavpur, Rabindra Sarobar and Victoria Memorialwere 28, 29, 36 and 33 respectively.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51-100'satisfactory', 101-200 'moderately polluted', 201-300 'poor',301-400 'very poor' and 401-500 'severe', while the AQI above500 falls in the 'severe plus' category.

The AQI hovered between 100 and 260 across differentair monitoring stations before the lockdown began on March 25,the official said.

"This is better than the national standard of 60 (PM2.5). It happened because of very little commercial activityduring this (lockdown) period, which has pushed pollutantslike sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide to avery low level," the WBPCB official said.

The readings at other monitoring stations of the citywere also 'good' 46 in the BT Road campus of the RabindraBharati University and 50 at Fort William, he said.

The WBPCB official said the average air qualityreading across Kolkata was 20 (PM 2.5) on Tuesday due to thelockdown and rain for two consecutive days since Monday. Thisfigure was even below the World Health Organisation (WHO)standard of 25.

Last year around this time AQI hovered between 100 and300 in different air monitoring stations in the city andneighbouring areas like Baranagar and Ghusuri. SUSNN NN