Assessment of Ambient Air Pollution and Mitigation Strategies towards Achieving Air Quality Index (AQI) in the Indian Himalayan Region

Indian Himalayan Region is a house of many hill stations having vast aesthetic and natural beauty with pleasant pollution free climate and peaceful places. The IHR is sreched over 10 states in the Northern and North-East region of India. The Himalaya is vulnerable to both natural and man-made processes by its nature. Though air pollution is a major concern of metropolitan cities but the Himalayan region is also not spared. The air quality in the Indian Himalayan Region is also rapidly deteriorating. Ambient air has become a scarce due to manmade vulnerable processes. Due to increase in transportation and industrial activities there is increasing in aerosol load in Himalayan regions. Locally, the air pollution is caused by vehicular emission and biomass burning. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) specifies the maximum amount of particulate matter (PM) present in outdoor air. The air quality is measured with presence of particulate matter of size PM 10 and PM 2.5. In a comparative study, the daily mean concentrations of both ambient PM 2.5 and PM 10 at different sampling sites in the IHR (Kashmir, Kullu, Dehradun, Nainital, Darjeeling, Jorhat) during winter and summer, the ambient particulate pollutants were observed well within the permissible limit prescribed by NAAQS. To maintain and regulate these air quality standards, various mitigation strategies for the Indian Himalayan Region are suggested.