LUDHIANA: Gasping for breath due to heavy blanket of dust for the past three days, the city residents breathed easy on Saturday as rain in the morning and evening cleared the haze. Though it remained cloudy, there was little relief from the heat as well.Since Thursday, it was totally dusty and visibility was also poor. The residents were complaining about several problems like breathlessness, irritation in eyes and skin.The air quality index (AQI) improved a little bit. While the AQI of Ludhiana has reached 443 microgram/m3, it was recorded at 389 microgram/m3 on Saturday morning and it came down to 353 microgram/m3 by afternoon. It was slight better than in cities like Amritsar, Bathinda and Mandi Gobindgarh where AQI was recorded at 403, 405 and 375 microgram/m3, respectively.A resident of Gurdev Nagar Harish Arora said, "It was so difficult to move out in such a dusty weather. While driving, even the air conditioner of the car was bringing the dust particles inside. The children and elderly people were not allowed to go outside the house." He said there are holidays in schools and it was tough to ask children not to play outside. But thankfully the rain came and settled the dust, he added.Mahinder Singh, a senior citizen from BRS Nagar, said he had been regularly going for morning walk for the past so many years, but in the past two days it was getting difficult to do so because of the suspended dust particles. He said this is actually alarming as due to uprooting of trees drastic changes are happening which is going to prove harmful for all of us, he said.One of the members of NGO RBS Roots Dr Amandeep Bains said on the one hand, the trees are being uprooted in the name of development and on the other no attention is being paid towards the right kind of plantation which is leading to such type of environment.He said it happened last year in October-November. "And now in June, residents saw a similar situation and felt uneasiness. Now residents should join hands and do something to save the green wealth of the city," he added. He said only trees can clear the air and there is need to bring balance.

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