The air quality in Bengaluru has witnessed a 40% deterioration in the past year and the AQI has been fluctuating since the last week of October.
Story so far: As the temperature decreases, the city’s air quality is rapidly deteriorating. The “winter inversion” is a natural phenomenon, according to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), and increasing traffic density is making things worse.
- Since the last week of October, when winter officially began, the air quality index (AQI), as measured in the city and reported by KSPCB, has been varying between moderate and very poor.
Traffic emissions: The air we breathe is being further degraded by modern traffic pollutants in addition to winter-related natural conditions, according to Jayaprakash, a scientist with the KSPCB. The primary pollutant in the city is fine suspended particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 to 10 micrometres.