The incessant drizzles led to surge in toxicity in the air in the State Capital on the occasion of Diwali on Sunday night.
However, the air quality index which was recorded at 16 7.84 last year was recorded at 168 points by Monday morning.
With the locals freely using firecrackers to celebrate, the air quality exhibited sizeable deterioration but the decline in air quality was almost as much as it was witnessed last year.
Like previous years, Hamidia Road and Govindpura localities of Bhopal the AQI was recorded in excess of 160 points.
In the recent past, MP pollution control board has put up display boards at various places make people aware about air pollution but these warning signs seem to have no impact on the revellers which started enjoying firecrackers at 6 pm and continued till late night.
This was the reason the AQI recorded at 90 points 6:00 p.m. On Sunday kept going up and reached the level of 111 at 11:00 p.m. The parameter search to 124 midnight and by around 7:00 a.m. on Monday it was 168. Fuelled by train the fog got mixed with firecrackers smoke and several areas in the state capital were draped in thick blanket of smog. In Gwalior, the air also turned toxic in various areas due to firecrackers and the pollution was four times than normal days in Maharaj bada area in the city. The level of Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter which normally remains at 100 had surged to over 400 at Maharajbada and situation was no better in other places.
Besides, 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 in ambience.
The situation was more or less the same in other cities which saw firecrackers burnt till late night.
Meanwhile, at Itwara area in Bhopal, 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.