Motorists on a dusty Dimapur Road. Air pollution, termed a “burning issue” by the Nagaland Pollution Control Board, poses a severe threat to public health and the environment. (Morung File Photo)
Urban and rural at ‘high risk’ from deteriorating air
Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 13
The Nagaland Pollution Control Board (NPCB) has identified air pollution as a “burning issue” for the environment, as it severely affects public health, according to its latest assessment.
The board highlighted that air pollutants from rapid urbanization and other man-made activities including fast expanding vehicular traffic, industries, domestic sources such as burning of waste, etc are causing deep concern to all kind of living organism and the property is getting adversely affected.
Both urban and rural areas of any city or village are at “high risk” due to air pollution, particularly during winter season, the NPCB stated.
The board’s findings are part of its bulletin under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which presents analyses from ambient air monitoring conducted in the years 2022, 2023 and 2024. The same for the year 2025 is in the process, it informed.
NPCB mandates ‘action plans’ for Kohima, Dimapur
The air quality in Kohima and Dimapur has been found to exceed permissible limits, leading to their classification as “non-attainment cities” for Particulate Matter (PM10) as per the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) of the Government of India.
According to the NPCB, this designation necessitates an “Action Plan” to improve air quality in both urban centres.
The assessment is part of the National Ambient Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP), which aims is to determine the status and trend in ambient air quality, and check compliance with the national standards. Under the NAMP, there are 11 monitoring stations in Nagaland with seven at Dimapur and four at Kohima.
Under the programme, four air pollutants are monitored: Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM/PM10) and Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5).
The monitoring is conducted 24 hours (four hourly sampling for gaseous pollutants (NO2 & SO2) and 8 hourly sampling for particulate matter (RSPM) twice or thrice in a week.
The NPCB regularly monitors ambient air quality of Dimapur and Kohima city throughout the year using manually operated Respirable Dust Samplers and Fine Particulate matter in all the monitoring stations.
Data from seven monitoring stations, which operate across Dimapur city and its surrounding areas, show that levels of RSPM/PM10 “is mostly above the permissible limit in all the monitoring stations, which indicates that the ambient air quality is polluted.”
“Out of the seven stations, Dhobinala and Burma Camp, which are located in the Commercial areas, are of major concerns, as the ambient air quality is way beyond the permissible limit,” the board recorded.
However, gaseous pollutants, specifically Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) and Sulphur Dioxide (SO₂) remain within national standards at every monitoring station.
In Kohima, all four stations show that the levels of the gaseous pollutants nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and sulphur dioxide (SO₂) are within national standards and remain below detectable limits.
With respect to Kohima city, it is comparatively better then Dimapur city, however, as per the monitoring carried out it is also slightly higher than the permissible limit.
However, the High School station, which is located in the commercial area, is higher in comparison with the other three monitoring stations, it stated.
The board stated that achieving cleaner air targets under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) requires “conscious collaboration efforts” across government departments and “active participation” from citizens.
With the focus to improve the air quality in both these cities, “NCAP aims to address the air quality challenges to deliver a cleaner and healthier air quality for our cities,” it added.
NPCB expressed hope that the findings will serves as a “valuable and informative resource to will help educate and sensitizes citizen and public on the matters relating to ambient air quality and its scenario.”
