Lucknow is now country’s second-most polluted city

LUCKNOW: The air quality of all cities in the country improved except those in Uttar Pradesh, where two cities remained ‘severely’ polluted on Wednesday.

The state capital was the second-most polluted in the country, while Ghaziabad topped the list with the Air Quality Index (AQI) of 418. According to the AQI data released by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the pollution levels in Lucknow went down by 80 units but it remained under severely polluted category with AQI 404. AQI of 500 is the end of the scale and means a public health emergency.

Only Lucknow and Ghaziabad were under the ‘severe’ category on the CPCB list. Both cities were more than 50 units more polluted than the national capital where AQI was 361. It figured in the ‘very poor’ category. A dip in pollution levels was recorded in other cities of UP which had earlier figured in the severely polluted category. Kanpur and Agra improved by 31 and 48 units respectively on Wednesday.


‘Dust load on Lucknow air’
According to environment expert Venkatesh Dutta, “There is heavy dust load on Lucknow’s air. The city is in transition with a lot of construction activities, Metro work and smoke from brick kilns polluting the air. The dispersion of pollutants will take time.”

According to CPCB, the concentration of PM2.5 in Lucknow was seven times higher than the permissible limit of 60 micrograms/cubic metre, set by the National Ambient Air Quality Standard. The most polluted location in Lucknow was Talkatora.