When we talk of air pollution, the first thing that pops into our minds is Delhi’s smog-filled air. However, in the last few days it hasn’t been Delhi, but Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, that is choking from the poor quality air.
Over the last few days, Mumbai’s air quality index (AQI) has been worse than Delhi’s; on Thursday, while Mumbai recorded an AQI of 308, Delhi recorded an AQI of 262. The situation was no better on Friday when the financial capital saw an AQI of 309 compared to the Capital’s AQI of 249. On Monday morning, a similar trend was noticed, as Mumbai’s AQI was at 221 while that of Delhi’s was 180.
It is important to note that an AQI between 201 and 300 is considered ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’, while the AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’ and 101 and 200 ‘moderate’.
Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray slammed the Maharashtra government for the situation, saying that while the public was feeling the ill-effects of the poor air quality, the government was keeping mum.
Another day of terrible air quality. News reporting it. Everyone feeling it, speaking about it. Mumbai and cities around feeling the brunt.
But the absence of full time environment minister, lack of climate action awareness and an absent Govt ensures no word from Govt pic.twitter.com/9NN7rZnWbf— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) December 6, 2022
Congress’ Milind Deora also raised concerns about the dip in Mumbai’s air quality, mentioning on Twitter that it the city was logging its worst air quality and in some neighbourhoods, the air quality is worse than that of Delhi.
Mumbai is logging its worst air quality, amplified by construction works for the Mumbai Metro & Coastal Road. In some neighbourhoods, the air quality is worse than that of Delhi.
Mumbai’s roads are also dug up & turned upside down, making it one of India’s least liveable metros. pic.twitter.com/qtx54AwolI
— Milind Deora | मिलिंद देवरा ☮️ (@milinddeora) December 10, 2022
But, what’s causing Maximum City to turn into ‘Choked City? We examine the reasons that are contributing to Mumbai’s rising air pollution levels.
Change in winds
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why Mumbai is witnessing a dip in air pollution is the change in wind patterns.
Dr Gufran Beig, former project director of government-backed SAFAR (System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research) network was quoted as telling Indian Express, “We do not fully understand why this is happening, but the wind speeds have declined this year. It needs to be investigated further. But the decline in wind speeds is significant enough to hamper its ability to blow away pollutants. This is one of the biggest reasons for the bad air quality in Mumbai.”
Also read: Why Delhi’s air pollution problem isn’t just a winter issue
He also explained that Mumbai’s usual wind movement — moving from land to sea for a few days, and then from sea to land — has seen a delay. “Instead of repeating every three-four days, it is happening after a week, even 10 days. This is leading to large-scale accumulation of pollutants over the city. Even when the wind direction turns favourable, the lack of adequate speed means that the air is not entirely cleaned,” he said.
Rise in construction activities
Another factor contributing to Mumbai’s poor air quality is the rise in construction activities. According to a 2021 study, road dust in the city contributed to 71 per cent of particulate matter in the city’s air. This is a significant rise from the 28 per cent in 2010.
Noted environmentalist Sumaira Abdulali in an interview to News18 said that according to government data, 15 per cent of Mumbai’s air pollution is caused by construction dust.
Mumbai as of now is seeing two large-scale infrastructure projects being undertaken — the Mumbai Metro project and the Coastal Road Project. These two projects could be a driving reason for Mumbai’s rise in pollution levels.
Experts note that preventive measures such as the usage of sprinklers at construction sites aren’t being followed.
Environmentalist Debi Goenka speaking to Reuters said, “There are no restrictions on construction activity. The roads are all dug up because of the metro and vehicular traffic is crawling, leading to more pollution.”
There are several other infrastructural projects such as the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR), the construction of several new flyover and repair of over 200 bridges, which are also contributing to dust pollution. Moreover, after the COVID pandemic, the real estate business has also taken off like a rocket, with new buildings being built all over the city.
Environmental activists also note that a large number of trees have been felled recently to make accommodate infrastructure projects, which in turn, has affected air quality levels. On Friday, the Bombay High Court allowed the National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) to cut around 22,000 mangrove trees in Mumbai and neighbouring districts of Palghar and Thane for the under-construction Mumbai- Ahmedabad bullet train project.
However, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief has rejected the claims that infrastructure projects are to blame for the dip in Mumbai’s air pollution levels.
BMC’s IS Chahal told Times of India, “It's not like construction activity has picked up pace this month only.”
Vehicular pollution
An increasing number of vehicles on Mumbai’s roads is also a reason for the city’s poor air levels. A SAFAR study from the previous year revealed that the share of PM2.5 vehicular emission was 30.5 per cent in 2019-20, up from 16 per cent in 2016-17.
The city’s vehicle density is now over 2,000 vehicles per km, an indicator of more traffic congestion and worsening air pollution in future.
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Dr Gufran Beig, senior scientist and founder project director at SAFAR, told MiD Day, “Transport sector has shown a drastic increase over five years as a sector contributing to PM2.5 pollution in Mumbai. This is a combination of both an increase in the number of vehicles in Mumbai and more stagnation at traffic junctions leading to congestion.”
These three factors together is making breathing in Mumbai a laborious task and leading to the financial capital’s air becoming even worse than that of Delhi.
With inputs from agencies
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