Real Time Ambient Air Quality Status during Diwali Festival in Central, India

In India, festivals are celebrated with lot of enthusiasm and Diwali is the major festival of light. In this festival, houses are illuminated by lights and sky is illuminated by fireworks. These fireworks though create lot of amusement but also pollute the atmosphere in terms of air pollution. The continuous air pollution monitoring was undertaken during Diwali festival (2014) at residential site NEERI, Nagpur. Air quality parameters were compared with CPCB standard. On Diwali day, PM10 and PM2.5 concentration achieve its highest value of 900 μg/m3 and 950 respectively μg/m3. This high concentration is maintained in atmosphere for two days of this festival in atmosphere which is approximately 8 9 times more than that regulatory standard. These particles carry all the components of the cracker including heavy metals, alkali metals, alkaline earth and change the atmosphere with positive and negative ions apart from impaction of sulfur and other acid gases to the atmosphere.