Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB) is looking forward to strengthen its monitoring system for detecting changes in air pollution levels of Ranchi. To this end, five new continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations will be put up at points most likely to have high air pollution levels in the city.
Apart from the existing three stations, one each at Albert Ekka Chowk, Van Bhawan in Doranda and JSPCB offices in Dhurwa, the new ones will be able to provide a better understanding of the pollution levels in the city.
“We will be putting them up in areas like Booty More, Kantatoli Chowk, Ratu Road and similar areas where chances of air pollution levels are the highest. As the name of the mechanism suggests, monitoring will be done round the clock at these stations. We can then monitor pollution levels in the city more accurately,” said JSPCB Member Secretary HS Jha
The Board has also issued appeals and guidelines for those planning to burst crackers this Diwali in order to keep the effect of chemical emissions and loud burst of noise from the crackers on the environment to the minimum.
He added, “As far as increase in air pollution levels during Diwali is concerned, we will cover them under our regular monitoring rounds. Additionally, we have issued appeals through advertisements in print media, asking people to burst crackers while keeping the emissions caused by them.”
The advertisements include instructions to burst crackers in open and in groups rather than in scattered numbers. Also, guidelines have been issued asking people to refrain from crackers which emit noise above 125 decibels in a radius more than 4 meters.
“We have appealed people to try and keep pollution levels to the minimum this Diwali. As far as monitoring is concerned, we have been conducting regular monitoring and the same will continue during the festive season too,” said JSPCB Environment Engineer Sudhir Kumar.
On rise of pollution levels in the city during and after Diwali, the JSPCB Member Secretary stated, “Although we do not have any decisive internal reports which points towards substantial rise in pollution levels, but we have received reports from several external sources which do show a rise in pollution levels in Ranchi during recent times. Following them, we will definitely take stringent actions to put bring these numbers down.”