Guwahati's AQI data under scrutiny as citizens question accuracy
Residents and experts question whether Guwahati's air quality data reflects actual conditions, citing missing readings and rising pollution levels
A file image of pollution in Guwahati
Guwahati, Dec 4: As concerns over deteriorating air quality in Guwahati intensify, questions are being raised about whether the pollution data released by government agencies truly reflects on-ground conditions.
Many argue that the city’s limited number of monitoring stations fail to capture an accurate picture.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the average AQI (air quality index) of Guwahati on Wednesday was 109 - categorized as ‘moderate’. However, the figures take into account data from only three of the four Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS).
Guwahati has four CAAQMS, one each located at the Pollution Control Board Assam (PCBA) headquarters at Bamunimaidam, Panbazar (Cotton University), Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, and IIT Guwahati.
Last two days, the CPCB data published the average of only three stations.
According to air quality monitoring platform AQI.in, the city’s AQI reached 178 at midnight and around noon today. Average AQI in November was also 119 - poor category.
In December, the average AQI so far in the city stood at 167 - categorized as unhealthy.
According to IQAir, which monitors real time air quality across the globe, the city’s AQI was 133 - ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ - at 4.30 pm on Wednesday.
The readings at CPCB’s IITG, Panbazar and LGBI stations were taken into account by the global pollution watchdog. Bamunimaidam station’s reading was not available with it. The watchdog, however, noted that PM2.5 concentration in the evening was 9.7 times more than the World Health Organization annual PM2.5 guideline value.
Experts agree that the city needs more monitoring stations, more particularly in pollution hotspots to get the real picture. Pollution level in and around the flyover construction sites do not seem to be in sync with the AQI published by government agencies.
Even according to government criteria, there ought to be a minimum of five CAAQMS - two in residential areas, one in traffic dominant area, one in commercial area and another in industrial area, besides manual stations.
Professor Sharad Gokhale of Civil Engineering department of IIT Guwahati agreed that more monitoring stations are required in the city, in particular at traffic junctions.
“For examples, Jalukbari has now become a new bottleneck junction where surely traffic jams occur any time of the day due to heavy flow of traffic four ways. Such junctions need additional monitoring station,” he said, adding that the IITG station has been established under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and it takes care of rural areas surrounding the institution and also factories located nearby.
In 2024, eleven districts of Assam are among the top 50 polluted districts in the country, according to a satellite-based PM2.5 assessment across India’s airsheds, states and districts. The study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) stated that all the 34 districts observed in Assam exceeded the NAAQS in 2024.