Assessment of Air Quality Associated with Adulteration in Akola City, Maharashtra

Motor vehicle emission occupy a special place in discussion of air pollution because they contribute more than 70% outdoor air pollution and are also the major sources of suspended particulate matter and many other pollutants because of imperfectly consumed gases such carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons which are offensive, not only to the occupants of the vehicle, but to persons in the street. The alert, rising in the present paper is not about this well established fact that “Air Pollution Kills”. The real bad news is that even though ALL of us ? which includes policy makers, industrialists, common citizens ? are conscious of this horrible, life-threatening menace, the action agenda to get rid of it is practically non-existent. Oh, the government (along with the corporate houses!) keep coming up with announcements, alerts and clean-air drives..... But the truth is none of us really know what to do, in fact no one is serious about it. More over, India’s capacity to monitor and assess the problem of air pollution remains abysmally weak. The present paper aims on assessing the air quality of the city and to correlate it with the increasing rate of motorization especially auto rickshaws running on adulterated fuel.