Air quality in Hyderabad is good, TS PCB clarifies

The Telangana Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) on Monday urged people of Hyderabad not to believe false claims made in social media that air quality in Hyderabad was deteriorating and the Air Quality Index (AQI) of New Delhi, which hovers between 300 and 360, and that of Hyderabad are same.

The AQI of Hyderabad is generally in the range of Good to Moderate i.e. less than 200. The AQI in Hyderabad in the last few days i.e. November 22, November 23 and 24 is Moderate with AQI measured hovering from 120, 123 and 123 respectively.

An action plan for improving the air quality in Hyderabad is under implementation because of which PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations have decreased from 97 to 81 micro grams per meter cube and 40 to 36 micro grams per



meter cube respectively from 2019 to 2023.

The ‘SAMEER App’ of CPCB is the official app of Government which gives the AQI of the cities and also that of the individual stations based on the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS). Hence general public are advised to use the SAMEER app to know the AQI of Hyderabad.

The TSPCB is monitoring the ambient air quality in Hyderabad and surroundings at 14 locations through CAAQMS and manually at 14 locations. The AQI reflects the concentration of 3 highest pollutant parameters out of 8 parameters monitored in the ambient air. The index (AQI) is a number without any units for understanding of the citizens and should be confused with the concentrations, the TSPCB clarified.