Hyderabad: Source of pollution still mystery, says PCB

HYDERABAD: A day after an almost 20km-stretch of the city was enveloped by a shroud of smog and foul smell, authorities said the source of the pollution was still a mystery. An investigation was on, even as some residents complained of foul smell again on Saturday.

Stating that the spread of pollutants over such a large area was “unprecedented”, an official from the TSPCB said, “Generally, we get complaints of foul smell from industries nearby, but this time it was accompanied by smog which has not happened before.The extent of spread of the pollutants was also much larger.” They were not ruling out a combination of factors including garbage burning and release of industrial gasses.
On Saturday, residents of areas from Bachupally up till Kukatpally continued to complain of a foul smell. Bhaskar Reddy, a resident of Kukatpally, said: “I closed all the doors to my apartment and my children have been indoors since yesterday as we were getting a chemical smell.”
Srinivas K, an engineer and resident of Bachupally, said: “The officials have zeroed-in on a few industrial units, but are not officially declaring them as the errant ones. There needs to be more transparency on the part of the pollution watchdog.”
TSPCB officials, for their part, denied having been able to trace the source. A team was on ground collecting air samples on Saturday, which would be brought back to the lab and tested. “We are ruling out industrial areas one at a time. On Friday, by the time complaints came, the pollutants had cleared in several areas, making it impossible to pin-point the errant units,” said an official, adding that unlike with other type of pollutants, smell cannot be detected by machines, making it harder to trace.