Bhopal: Persistent drizzle and pleas from the MP pollution control board did not make much of a difference on Diwali as locals enjoyed firecrackers leading to a rise in air pollution in Bhopal on Sunday. The levels, however, were below last year’s due to lights showers.
The air quality index, which was recorded at 167.84 last year, was at 168 points on Monday. Hamidia Road and Govindpura were the most polluted areas of the city this year too as AQI was recorded at over 160 points.
The MP pollution control board had put up display boards at various places to make people aware of air pollution but these clearly had no impact as residents began bursting firecrackers at 6 in the evening and continued till late at night.
The AQI was recorded at 90 points at 6pm and it further deteriorated and reached the level of 111 at 11pm. The parameter surged to 124 by midnight and at 7am on Monday, it was 168.
Several areas were draped in a thick blanket of smog. In Gwalior, the air turned toxic in various areas due to firecrackers and the pollution was four times than normal days in Maharajbada area in the city. The level of Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter, which normally remains at 100, had surged to over 400 at Maharajbada.
Meanwhile in Jabalpur, the trend was same on Diwali. The PM 2.5 had reached 500 mark by midnight in Jabalpur while PM 10 was 420 points around this time on Diwali night. Other toxic materials, including Sulphur and NO2, also saw a surge.
The situation was more or less the same in other cities which saw firecrackers being burnt till late at night.
The Firecracker Sellers' Association, however, said a dip of 10-25% was witnessed in sales.
At Kondagaon in Chhattisgarh, three people sleeping inside a firecracker shop were killed after the outlet caught fire on Sunday night. In Bhopal’s Itwara, three persons were injured and vehicles were damaged after a bunch of locals collected gunpowders in a pit and set it on fire. Police had lodged a case against the guilty persons.
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