Status of Ambient air pollution in Patancheru, Sangareddy District, Telangana

Air pollution has come to known as the most serius problem over the water pollution from the past 2 decades in Hyderabad, and its Surrounding areas resulting in Increase in number of Asthama cases and cardio vascular diseases. Urbanisation of rural areas, Establishment and expansion of different types of industries, Deforestation, mining activities and increased vehicular movement are mainly contributing towards increase in the ambient temperatures and poor air quality in the areas. Patancheru of Sangareddy district located at northwest corner to the Hyderabad is one among them. The area is selected to study the air quality under 3 zones namely the Commercial cum Residential zone, Industrial zone Sensitive zone and is compared with respect to the Background Zone. The study is carried out to assess the status of pollution from the past one decade. The trends in the air quality is observed covering all the three seasons i.e., Rainy, Early winter and winter season, Early summer and Summer seasons. Data for Meteorological parameters like temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and rainfall during the sampling period is taken from Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS). Monthly and seasonal variation of these pollutants have been observed and recorded from June-2023 to May-2024. The annual average values have been calculated. It is observed that the concentrations of the pollutants are high in winter in comparison to the summer or the monsoon seasons. The study reports that particulate matter and gaseous emissions from industries, road dust from vehicular movement, less ambient temperatures prevailing during winters and low wind speed in comparision to the other zones at industrial area are responsible for the high concentration of pollutants in the area. In the present study, it was noticed that the PM10 levels are found to be in the order of Industrial area> residential cum commercial area > Sensitive zone. The particulate matter and gaseous pollutants i.e., NO2 levels exceeds in the industrial zone with respect to the prescribed limits as stipulated by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) New Delhi, India. The Air Quality Index is also calculated and discussed for all the zones.