Ghaziabad topped the list of the country’s most polluted cities for the third consecutive day on Friday, logging a “severe” air quality index (AQI) of 422-PM10 and PM2.5 being primary pollutants-according to the daily bulletin of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
Ghaziabad earlier topped the list on November 17, November 19 and 20. The city has been experiencing “severe” pollution days for the sixth consecutive day since November 16.
According to CPCB data, the city plunged into the “severe” AQI with daily readings of 419, 401, 434, 422, 430, and 422 from November 16 to November 21-for the first time this year. Notably, the city reported only two “severe” days each in the November of 2024, 2023, and 2022.
The air quality monitoring stations at Indirapuram, Loni, Sanjay Nagar, and Vasundhara recorded AQIs of 406, 460, 432, and 387 till 4pm on Friday.
Ankit Kumar, Ghaziabad’s regional officer of the UP Pollution Control Board, said: “The meteorological conditions are not favourable in the region. We are considering recalibrating the monitoring stations soon. The values will be fed to the entire system again, and a restart will follow after shutdown. Our teams are regularly taking up enforcement activities while other agencies are also taking up pollution-abatement measures.”
Mahesh Palawat, vice president for meteorology and climate change at Skymet Weather, said: “The wind speed is low in the region, leading to pollutants getting trapped near the earth’s surface. Also, there is no forecast for rain or western disturbance in the coming days. So, the conditions are likely to prevail.
Meanwhile, the neighbouring Greater Noida recorded a tad better AQI at 353 under the “very poor” category, while Noida logged 394, also under the “very poor” category.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, Ghaziabad on Friday recorded maximum and minimum temperatures of 26.9 degrees Celsius and 12.7 degrees Celsius, respectively. Greater Noida and Noida recorded maximum and minimum temperatures of 27.9 and 11.3 degrees Celsius, respectively.