If data from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) are to be believed, Ahmedabad’s air quality briefly deteriorated to levels worse than even Delhi on Sunday evening. Particulate Matter 2.5 pollution in Ahmedabad reached 200 g/m3 on the Air Quality Index (AQI) to reach “Poor” by 8 p.m., compared to 176 g/m3 in Delhi. The SAFAR application shows that an hour later, Delhi’s air quality rapidly deteriorated to 312 g/m3, while Ahmedabad’s pollution increased to 232 g/m3 by 9 p.m.
The nine Air Quality Monitoring Stations (AQMS) installed in the two cities and monitored by the SAFAR system run by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune allow for the calculation of air quality and pollutant concentration. Around 8:00 pm on Sunday night, the air quality in 2 areas—Bopal and Satellite—was classified as “Very Poor,” 4 areas—Navrangpura, Pirana, Rakhial, and Lekawada—was classified as “Poor,” and 3 areas—Raikhad, Chandkheda, and GIFT City—was classified as “Moderate.”
Notably, at 8 pm, the two most polluted areas in Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar at ‘Very Poor’ on the scale, were Bopal, where the PM2.5 concentration was 314 µg/m3, and Satellite, where PM2.5 concentration was 307 µg/m3.
However, while the air quality in these two areas improved to ‘Moderate’ levels just an hour later, the air quality in four other areas of the city progressively worsened at the same time.
The worst affected was the Pirana area, which houses the garbage mound of Ahmedabad located in the middle of the city, where air concentration of the pollutant PM2.5 rose from 215 µg/m3 at 8 pm to 343 µg/m3 at 9 pm, going from ‘Poor’ to ‘Very Poor’ on the index.
Apart from Pirana, Raikhad and Chandkheda areas saw pollution rise significantly, with air quality worsening from ‘Moderate’ to ‘Poor’ in the matter of an hour. Navrangpura too saw marginal worsening of pollution while remaining at ‘Poor’ on the index. An IMD official said, “The pollution is not likely to have been caused by the rise in temperature because this change is not restricted to Ahmedabad but temperature has risen across the state. Other factors are likely to have played a role in this scenario.”