Preliminary Study on Air Quality of Srinagar, (J&K), India

Abstract

The present work was carried out to study the air quality of Srinagar city and the samples were collected from five different sites which includes commercial area (site-I), industrial area (site-II), residential area (site-III), ecologically sensitive site (site-IV) and sensitive area (site-V). During the study samples were taken on monthly basis and were analyzed for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and repairable particulate matter (PM₁₀). Significant variation was recordedwithin and among the sites in NO₂ (F₃ = 3.82; F₄ = 115, P < 0.05), whereas among the sites in SO₂ and PM₁₀ (F₄ = 167, P < 0.05) and (F₄ = 72.55, P < 0.05) respectively. The study revealed higher concentration of NO₂ at Lal chowk which is commercial area and vehicular emission could be the one of the reason for higher value of NO₂. SO₂ exhibited high concentration at industrial area and could be attributed to burning of fossil fuels in industries and use of generator sets. PM₁₀ was also found higher in industrial area due to presence of cement industries in addition to burning of coal as fuel. The overall concentration of NO₂ and SO₂ were found within the permissible limits for all sites as per National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) except for PM₁₀ at site-I and site II. The overall air quality index of site-I and site-II falls within “Moderate” category and for site-III, IV and V falls within “Good” category.