Dat gaps threaten state’s fight against air pollution

Hubballi: An analysis of winter air pollution in South India, conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, has revealed that Karnataka shows major data gaps from the automated air quality monitoring stations in the region under Continous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) program of Central POlution Control Board (CPCB).
The analysis, covering 63 CAAQMS spread across the 39 cities in five southern states, has observed challenge of data gaps and data quality despite automation in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The situation relatively better in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala. “Among Bengaluru stations, Silk Board has only 61% while Peenya and Jayanagar with 64% and 68%. Only 12 out of 21 stations of Karnataka outside Bengaluru meet the minimum requirement of 75%. It’s not clear why these stations have such poor data availability, this requires additional assessment,” the analysis stressed.
Analysis has also stated that data availability calculated as number of days with adequate PM2.5 data for computation of a valid 24hr-average has been low in 19 of 39 cities of 5 states. “For the second half of the year 2021, data availability at city railway station and Sanegurava Halli stations of Bengaluru and Udupi has been zero percent. Kalaburagi and Bidar have registered just 39% and 7% data availability respectively. Gadag and Kalaburagi also report significant bad air days, in fact air quality index (AQI) in these cities can cross into very poor AQI category but due to massive amount of missing data it is unclear how long these bad air episodes actually last.”
Commenting on the analysis, former IFS officer and environmentalist Dr A N Yellappa Reddy lamented that air quality monitoring stations are left with no proper maintenance and are installed just for name sake. “Even if the data is available, it is not accurate as many of them are under construction for 2-3 years at tall buildings from where pollution will be circulated in surround areas. This is happening as there is no seriousness among officials of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). Most of KSPCB officials are engaged only in income generating activities” he said.
Highlights of the analysis
* During the worst weekly pollution episode in winter the PM2.5 concentration can increase significantly higher that the annual PM2.5 average — about two times higher in several cities. Worst episodes are noted in Gadag registering a shocking weekly average of 192 ug/m3 (almost 5 times its annual average). Similarly, Kalaburagi recorded a weekly average of 104 in mid-December.
* Chikkaballapur is showing highest 65% of PM2.5/PM10 ratio in winters in Karnataka, and second highest in South India.
* Ten CAAQMS in Bengaluru, one each in Bagalkot, Bidar, Chamarajanagar, Chikkaballapur, Chikkamagalur, Davangere, Gadag, Hassan, Hubballi, Kalaburagi, Kolar, Koppal, Madikeri, Mangalore, Mysuru, Raichur, Rannagara, Shivamogga, Udupi, Vijayapura and Yadgir were covered for the analysis.