Assessment of air pollution status in Mandi city and BBN industrial region of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

In India, over the past two decades, there has been a rapid increase in urbanization and industrialization in many cities. Due to increase in population, vehicular traffic, residential and industrial activities, air pollution levels are increasing day by day even in small cities and towns contiguous to them. Keeping in view the significance of monitoring of air quality the present study was undertaken to assess the ambient air quality status in Mandi and Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) region of Himachal Pradesh. The towns had been selected purposely based on residential, commercial, industrial, traffic and tourist activities for the monitoring of the air pollutants. The data has been recorded for eight hours at each location of the selected town during post-monsoon (December-January) season by using Respirable dust sampler (Cat. No MBLRDS-002) and Environmental Perimeter Air Station (EPAS).The observations recorded for air pollutants were respirable suspended particulate matter (PM10), NO2, SO2 and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Based on the present investigation it was found that the concentrations of gaseous pollutants like SO2, NO2, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter in the air are within the National Ambient Air Quality Standards at all the sites in Mandi city. The industrial area of HP in Baddi –Barotiwala- Nalagarh also contains gaseous pollutants like SO2, NO2 and volatile organic compounds within the permissible limits. However, in the Industrial region all sites like Industrial hub, traffic and commercial area contained particulate above the prescribed permissible limits indicating thereby that Industrial activities have started impacting the ambient air quality of our state.