Hyderabad’s air quality deteriorated to hazardous levels on Thursday night (October 31, 2024) as citizens celebrated Deepavali with gusto, bursting crackers and lighting fireworks. The 10 p.m. outer limit for bursting crackers imposed by the Hyderabad Police went for a toss as aerial pyrotechnics lit up the sky.
The particulate matter pollution of 2.5µg/m3 reached a high of 475 at the U.S. Consulate observatory; in Kapra it reached 454, and in the partially functioning monitoring station of Sanathnagar, it was 472. Five of the Central Pollution Control Board real-time monitoring stations at Zoo Park, Bollarum, Patancheru, Somajiguda and Sanathnagar went offline just as the air quality began to deteriorate around 10 p.m.
The PM10, or particulate matter of 10µg/m3, reached a high of 605 at Ramachandrapuram on the fringes of the city. The pollution levels peaked after 10 p.m. before dropping back to the normal range. The Sanathnagar observatory logged the maximum of 472 PM2.5 after it came back online at 1 a.m. on Friday (November 1, 2024).
It shows a blank between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. for PM2.5 while it was recording other parameters like nitrogen dioxide, Sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone.
In 2022, the Sanathnagar monitoring station was the only functioning monitoring station and it had recorded PM2.5 at 759 at 10 p.m. on October 24.
Published - November 01, 2024 10:06 am IST
