In an astonishing and scary move, Lucknow on Sunday, crossed all previous milestones and recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 349. While Kanpur stood the undisputed champion, the most polluted city in the country, with an AQI of 373, Lucknow is the second.
Lucknow is not the second most developed or the second most safe, but the second most polluted city in the country!!
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Lucknow’s AQI on Thursday was 320, which was enough to overtake Delhi’s 217 and make Lucknow the more polluted city. Following this, Lucknow seemed to be doing relatively better with an AQI of 272 on Saturday; but the city did not have the opportunity to rejoice and gained 77 AQI units to rest at 349 on Sunday. While that of Delhi on Sunday was 309.
This level of pollution is alarming since other cities in the country including Delhi, Patna, Ghaziabad, Noida and Faridabad have been doing much better with their pollution levels down considerably. The PM2.5 pollutant is six times higher than the safe limit in the city that has been marred with unrelenting construction activity and vehicular pollution.
The citizens of Lucknow can only wait and hope that their situation does not worsen further and they get to breathe better air soon.
