Maharashtra set to choke on aerosol pollution

Mumbai, Nov 12: As the worlds attention is riveted to the COP27 currently on in Egypt, it emerges that Maharashtra is likely to move from the Orange Zone to enter the Red Zone for aerosol pollution in 2023, sparking fresh concerns, researchers said here.
The alarm signal is sounded in a study — ‘A deep insight into state-level Aerosol pollution in India’, by Kolkata’s Bose Institute Associate Prof. Abhijit Chatterjee and his doctoral scholar Monami Dutta, released by ASAR as part of a project under the Simplifying Science Programme.
The study said that high aerosol amounts include particulate matter (PM2.5-PM10), comprising sea-salt, dust, sulphate, black and organic carbon.
“If inhaled, the toxic fumes can be harmful to peoples’ health, with increased morbidity rate and decreased life expectancy. Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) is the quantitative estimate of the aerosol present in the atmosphere and can be used as a proxy measurement of PM,” said Chatterjee.
“The toxins are spewed into the air by 23 coal-based Thermal Power Plants (TPP) with 72 units, producing 23 GW of power. From these, only 14 units (4.5GW) have either installed pollution control technology, Flue Gas Desulphurisation or claim to be sulphur dioxide limit compliant till August 2022,” said an official from the Central Electricity Authority.
A majority of the TPPs in Maharashtra are located in Nagpur, Amravati, Chandrapur, Akola, Jalgaon, Beed and Nashik.
Currently, said Dutta, Maharashtra falls in the ‘Orange Zone’ which is a vulnerable zone with AOD between 0.4-0.5. “The rising aerosol pollution is likely to push the AOD higher than 0.5 to enter the ‘most vulnerable’ or ‘Red Zone’,” said Dutta.
Explaining the value of the AOD range from 0 to 1.0, she said 0 indicates a crystal clear sky with maximum visibility and 1 shows a very hazy sky condition.
“AOD value below 0.3 (Green Zone) is safe, 0.3-0.4 (Blue Zone) is less vulnerable, 0.4-0.5 (Orange Zone) is vulnerable, while more than 0.5 (Red Zone) is highly vulnerable,” Dutta said.
According to the study by Chatterjee-Dutta, the TPP in Maharashtra has affected air pollution the most in the past, and the TPP capacity is increasing due to the higher demand for electricity. (IANS)