Air quality in Khanna

Is Khanna a polluted city?

Khanna is a city within the state of Punjab, in northern India. It also holds the title of being a municipal council within Ludhiana district, one of 22 different districts found in Punjab. Khanna is renowned for production and selling of grain through the various markets within the city, having an international presence on this platform despite being a small city with an accompanying small population size. Yet despite this, Khanna also has some high levels of air pollution present in its city, indicating that for much of the year, the atmosphere would be permeated with large amounts of smoke, haze, dust and other dangerous clouds of fine particulate matter (both PM2.5 and PM10, with the smaller sized PM2.5 being of far greater risk to the health of individuals within the city).

Observing the level of US AQI collected in May of 2021, Khanna presented with a reading of 160. This is a sizeable reading that would place Khanna into the ‘unhealthy’ ratings bracket for that particular day, indicating the presence of smog, air contaminants and many noxious fumes containing a variety of chemical compounds. US AQI is a composite reading composed of the various main pollutants typically found within a city (usually emanating from similar sources, both locally and on an international level, with only small disparities between countries due to certain local practices, as well as how stringent the laws are).

Some of the main pollutants that go into calculating the US AQI level are ones such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), ozone (O₃), which is more commonly known as smog when it gathers in large enough accumulations, as well as the aforementioned particulate matter of both ultrafine and coarse, or larger size range.

Other readings of US AQI on record prior to the high reading shown above include ones such as 163, 155 and 131. In the early days of April 2021, it can be seen that there were many more appreciable readings coming in, with lows of 47 and 68 being present, both of which would fall into the ‘moderate’ and ‘good’ ratings bracket. This indicates that whilst Khanna has some severe spikes in air pollution that can present a grave risk to the health of its inhabitants, there are also many days in which the air quality falls to relatively safer levels.

In order to protect oneself from these sporadic rises and falls in the air pollution level, air quality maps such as the one present further up on this page can be followed, as well as via the air quality graph that shows hourly updates of all the different pollutants detected at various data collection stations. The AirVisual app can also provide such hourly updates but with the convenience of being usable on your phone.

What causes instances of polluted air within the city of Khanna?

The main causes of pollution in Khanna typically come from various combustion sources present throughout the city, as well as other anthropogenic or industrial activities that lead to the mass dispersal of hazardous particulate matter throughout the air.

Vehicle fumes, emissions from factories and industrial zones (often utilizing fossil fuels such as diesel and coal), as well as crop stubble being burnt within the immediate vicinity of the city all add to its heightened pollution levels. Construction sites and the continued growth of infrastructure and buildings would also contribute further, with the heavy machinery and dust clouds given off by such sites adding more so to both the US AQI and PM2.5 count.

Has air pollution improved within Khanna?

Observing the air quality data collected over the last few years, one can see that the pollution levels in Khanna, in terms of its yearly averages, have gotten worse. This comes despite fluctuating readings, and a promising improvement that was actually shown in 2019. However, with the arrival of 2020’s average reading, it was shown that the improvement in air quality was short lived, and the PM2.5 count rose again, by a fairly considerable amount.

In 2018, Khanna came in with a PM2.5 yearly average of 41.6 μg/m³, placing it within the ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ bracket, which requires a reading of anywhere between 35.5 to 55.4 μg/m³ to be classified as such. This represents a level of pollution that would be harmful to vulnerable demographics, as the name would suggest, which includes groups of people such as young children, the elderly, pregnant women as well as those with a sensitive disposition towards chemical pollutants. Those with general poor health and pre-existing conditions, particularly of the cardiac or pulmonary variety would also be at higher risk.

In 2019 Khanna came in with a much improved reading of 36.1 μg/m³, still within the same pollution rating but only 0.7 units away from moving down to the ‘moderate’ pollution ratings bracket. Whilst it appeared that an improvement was on the rise, this was then upset again in 2020 when Khanna came in with a yearly average of 42.6 μg/m³, actually higher than the reading taken in 2018. This reading of 42.6 μg/m³ placed Khanna in 67^th place out of all cities ranked in India over 2020, as well as 166^th place out of all cities ranked worldwide.

When does Khanna have its highest levels of air pollution?

Observing the levels of air pollution taken over 2020 once again, it can be seen that Khanna had its highest levels of air pollution towards the end of the year, as well as elevations present at the beginning of the year. This indicates a pattern in which the pollution level would start to rise at years end, and then spill over to the early months of the following year, before falling to more appreciable levels.

October through to December all had the highest readings, coming in at 58 μg/m³, 59.7 μg/m³ and 55.8 μg/m³ respectively, making November the most polluted month of the year.

When is the air quality in Khanna at its cleanest?

Despite having some high and damaging levels of air pollution towards the end of the year, the months of March through to August saw the best levels of air quality, relatively speaking. Five out of these six months came in with ‘moderate’ pollution readings, with the cleanest month being August with a PM2.5 reading of 28.4 μg/m³.