The news release was about how IIT Madras developed an IoT based AQI monitoring system using vehicle mounted low-cost sensors to get a better picture of air quality and thus get a city-wide AQI picture.
Hyderabad: Just how polluted is the air of Hyderabad? It depends on where one looks for the data.
The website of the Portal for Regulation of Air Pollution in Non-Attainment Cities (PRANA) of the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change shows the air quality index (AQI) at 93 and in the ‘satisfactory’ category for Tuesday. According to the Central Pollution Control Board standards, AQI in the 51-100 range falls in the ‘satisfactory’ category.
But the PRANA website provides another link on the same page, ‘Live AQI’, which takes the user to the same website that shows 157 as Hyderabad’s AQI at the same time.
The website that PRANA guides a user to via the ‘Live AQI’ link, and the TGPCB guides through its ‘Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations Data (as per CPCB Portal)’ is aqinow.org, a privately owned website that appears to rely on US AQI standards.
The same portal opens when the online link ‘Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations Data (as per CPCB Portal)’ provided by the TGPCB on its website is followed, with the result being the discovery that as per aqinow.org, Hyderabad live AQI at 7.30 pm stood at an unhealthy 157.
While this is so, even more alarming is that there are only 25 air quality monitoring stations spread over the entire breadth of Hyderabad, including from the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP), State Air Quality Monitoring Programme (SAMP), and Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station (CAAQMS).
“All the data from all these stations, when all are in a working condition, is averaged out to give the city’s overall AQI. This does not present the true picture of what exactly is going on. Just because the PCB says the ‘air is good’, it does not mean it actually is,” a senior government official told Deccan Chronicle.
There is a need to decentralise AQI monitoring which means communities in residential areas need to take the initiative to set up equipment to figure out what the air quality in their neighbourhood is, and then take some steps they can, such as prevent burning of garbage, try and eliminate dust from the streets and so on, the official said.
Relying on average AQI for the entire city is equivalent to saying one person in the family has a fever of 104, and we will take temperatures of all members in the household and then arrive at an average for the person who is sick so everyone can feel better about the situation, the official further said.
Incidentally, back in June 15, 2023, the government of India’s Press Information Bureau news release said air pollution “is dynamic with locations just a few hundred meters away from each other exhibiting different levels of pollution. Levels can also vary at different times of the day. However, setting up more stations is not practical because of the high costs.”
The news release was about how IIT Madras developed an IoT based AQI monitoring system using vehicle mounted low-cost sensors to get a better picture of air quality and thus get a city-wide AQI picture.
