Spike in Chanda’s AQI, MPCB calls it mechanical snag

Chandrapur: Even as Delhi is under national focus for being covered in thick smog these days, sudden spike in Air Quality Index (AQI) of Chandrapur at 985, placing the city at the top of pollution chart for last two days, has baffled the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB).
The regional office of MPCB here is in damage control mode and has declared the high AQI figures displayed on National Air Quality Index since afternoon of November 5, as faulty.MPCB regional Officer PM Joshi, on Tuesday, claimed that the figures were flawed following snag in the machine, which was rectified on Tuesday afternoon.
According to MPCB, Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station at Udyog Bhavan for last 48 hours (November 5 to November 7) relayed ‘faulty figures’ of AQI as 985, far worse than highly-polluted Delhi where AQI is above 450. “The filter tape (sloop) in the machine that records the Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 reading was broken. Hence, the machine started showing AQI of 985 for almost two days. It has now been repaired and the PM 2.5 figures have dropped considerably down”, said Nitin Bar in-charge of the Envirotech company that looks after operation and maintenance (O & M) of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Station.
MPCB regional officer Joshi explained that the figure is very hazardous and if that was the case, the air would have become unbreathable. “On the contrary, the atmosphere in Chandrapur is quite clear. I had issued immediate directives for repair of the machine. The matter has also been explained to the higher ups in the department. I am also going to explain the same to the district collector later,” he told. He claimed that they have also sought the AQI data from Rajiv Gandhi College of Engineering, Research and Technology (RCERT) where AQI is analysed manually. “This manually analysed data of RCERT will be compared with that of figures of monitoring station to prove their point,” Joshi added.
Even as MPCB officials maintained that the machine was repaired, AQI figures continued to soar higher than normal on Tuesday. According to National Air Quality Index, AQI in Chandarapur was above 400 at 1pm as against normal daily average of AQI 60. The AQI level further improved to 179 at 4pm, which was still much higher than normal average.
Environmentalist Bandu Dhotre demanded for detailed investigation into relay of allegedly flawed pollution reading. He claimed that pollution level in Chandrapur have always remained higher than average and air quality in city continues to remain poor despite all measures. “Any such spike in pollution levels only adds to health problem of citizens. It is necessary to investigate whether the flared up AQI figures was fault of machine or it was an actual spark of pollution,” he demanded.
The AQI level at Chandrapur was at 420 in the afternoon
FilePollution spark-1
2) The machine which had broken down thus relaying default high figure of AQI
File- Machine