Bhubaneswar: A government report on air quality submitted in the state Assembly Tuesday hinted that pollution levels in industrial hubs of Odisha are on the rise especially with the surge of quantum of the particulate matter (PM).
In a statement to the House, the government furnished data related to the Ambient Air Quality of various towns in the state during 2017-18. A comparison of some industrial hubs claimed that particulate matters are on rise in many industrial areas.
The data, however, indicates that the state government has been able to contain harmful emission of Nitrogen Dioxide gas in some industrial areas where particulate matter in the air is certainly on the rise.
The upward rise of PM is specific to industrial hubs and mining areas of Angul, Talcher, Keonjhar and Kalinganagar. The data suggests that in Talcher alone, the PM10 count has gone up from 98 g/cubic metre in 2017 to 109 98 g/c-m in 2018. Similar was the increase of PM2.5 particles which increased from 45 g/c-m in 2017 to 49 g/c-m in 2018.
The rise of PM10 was felt in Angul where 97 g/c-m went up to 100 g/c-m in one year. The PM2.5 particles went from 46 g/c-m to 49 g/c-m from 2017 to 2018. However, the area which is emerging as a new pollution hub is Bonaigargh (Sundargarh) which records a sharp increase in air pollutants such as Sulphur Dioxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, PM10 and PM2.5 participles.
At Bonaigarh, the emission of air pollutants has increased manifold in a year. The emission of Sulpher Dioxide was measured as 7.1 g/c-m which rose to 8.4 in 2018. The Nitrogen Dioxide also went up from 9.8 g/c-m in 2017 to 12 g/c-m in 2018. However, the jump in the overall PM10 and PM2.5 particles was manifold.
The PM10 particle in the area was recorded at 65 g/c-m in 2017 which soared to 99 g/c-m in 2018. Similar was the state of PM2.5 particles. In 2017 Bonaigarh recorded emission of 18 g/c-m PM2.5 participles which rose a 100 times and touched 36 in 2018.
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