Aday after Diwali, air quality in most cities of the country dipped below the pre-Diwali levels, with just three towns, out of 230, reporting ‘good’ air on Monday, data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed on Tuesday. Madikeri in Karnataka, Ooty in Tamil Nadu and Silchar in Assam were the only three towns with an air quality index (AQI) lower than 50 on Monday. Interestingly, 39 cities, including Kolkata, Indore and Patna, reported better air quality on Monday than on Saturday, a day before Diwali. However, most other places reported a decline in air quality. On Saturday, AQI in 11 cities in the country were in the ‘very poor’ category (AQI higher than 300) while 35 were in the ‘poor’ category (higher than 200). On Monday, however, 52 towns were in the ‘very poor’ category and 80 in ‘poor’ category. No city fell in the ‘severe’ category, either on Saturday or on Monday. In the week before Diwali, barely 30 per cent of the cities were reporting air quality in the ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory’ ranges. Mild rainfall in northern India helped improve the air quality at several places, but Diwali followed immediately after that. Deterioration in air quality soon after Diwali is not unexpected, though the impact of firecrackers and lights usually wither away within a day or two. Locations in southern India usually have better air quality due to their proximity to the sea, while the worst-affected places in terms of air quality lay in the Gangetic plains owing to unfavourable geographic and meteorological conditions. The CPCB now carries out real-time monitoring of air pollution in around 275 towns and cities. The Centre is implementing its National Clean Air Programme in 131 cities with the objective of reducing air pollution by 20-30 per cent by 2024. However, most of the cities covered under the programme have been missing their intermediate annual targets. For 2021-22, these cities were given targets ranging between 3 and 15 per cent reduction in their pollutant levels. However, government data showed that only 45 of these 131 cities met these modest targets.
