Data on pollution levels not accurate: TNPCB chairman

Chennai: In a revelation, chairman of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) K. Skandan on Monday conceded the fact that there were issues of data validation and suggested for a deeper study to find out how effective are these air monitoring systems. He said ‘pollution’ data relating to different cities is questionable.

Mr Skandan was speaking at the Indian international conference on air     quality management at IIT Madras.

His views were supported by Dr B. Sengupta, former member secretary, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), saying the recent national data released in December last show that a place like Muzzaffarpur is more polluted than Delhi, which is impossible.

“The data shows Muzzaffarpur’s National Air Quality Index (NAQI) as 400 and Chennai’s NAQI as 139. How is it possible? Muzzaffarpur has limited vehicles than Chennai or any other bigger cities. So, it shows the data is not authentic. The systems have to be caliberated properly”, Mr Sengupta said.

However, Mr Skandan said that TNPCB has taken up the issue seriously and installing continuous air quality monitoring systems in  25 locations and the work is likely to be completed in another six months.

“We have already connected more than 300 highly polluting industries through online monitoring and having continues dialogue with them as the result the number of exceedences has gone down by one-third, which is a good sign”.
He blamed the urbanisation for poor air quality.

“For instance, Tamil Nadu has become 50-60 per cent urbanised with poor infrastructure in place compared to many other cities and that is probably the reason why air quality has gone bonkers, if I have to say”.