NAGPUR: Two days after Diwali, Chandrapur’s air turned out to be the most polluted in the state. The district recorded ‘poor’ air quality on Friday with particulate matter (PM) 2.5 being the prominent pollutant.The National Air Quality Index (AQI) data of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) shows that the air quality monitoring station in Chandrapur recorded an AQI of 214 on Friday, which comes under ‘poor’ category and can cause breathing discomfort to people on prolonged exposure.A day back, Bandra (Mumbai) had also recorded ‘poor’ air with an AQI of 235 which improved to 183 on Friday. On the second day of Diwali, Aurangabad had the worst sir with an index of 290 — Probably the highest of this festive season till now. Apart from it, Nashik recorded a ‘poor’ AQI of 263 on the same day.The CPCB displays data for nine cities of the state. In almost all these monitoring station, it is evident that the otherwise clean air started deteriorating significantly after the first day of Diwali. For instance, in Bandra, the AQI was varying between 88-129 about two weeks before the festival. However, it worsened by more than two times and suddenly rose to 235 on the next day of Diwali.Similarly, in Pune, the AQI, which was previously 99, went up to 186 after the first day of Diwali. From 75, the index in Nagpur increased by more than two times and was recorded 169 on the second day.According to environment activists, cities in Maharashtra might be more affected from air pollution caused due to firecrackers. “While in places like Delhi, crackers are burst only for a day, many cities in the state continue revelry for at least 5 days. The impact in this case on public health can be much worse as the smoke emitted from crackers contains cancer-causing agents,” said Sunil Dahiya, senior campaigner at Greenpeace India.Another trend common to most of the cities is that the levels of PM 2.5 and 10 entered the danger zones late in the night in the last two days. In Bandra, the air quality index of PM2.5 was 321 (very poor) around midnight and remained at 311 till 4am.On the intervening night of November 8 and 9, the PM10 index was as high as 500 post midnight in Aurangabad. In Pune too, both PM 2.5 and 10 rose to 500 close to midnight. “As the temperature drops in the night, the mixing capacity of the atmosphere decreases. Thus, the pollutants get trapped and their concentration in ambient air increases. They start dispersing slowly only when the temperature increases,” said Kavita Rattan, founder president of Green Vigil Foundation.

Stay updated with all the Latest Nashik headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.