HYDERABAD: They look green alright from afar. But just rub the very same ‘green’ leaf with your finger. Your neat fingertips will be covered with a layer of city dirt. The brownish tinge gone, the leaf looks a little more greener.And if the green doesn’t turn you red in the face, try swiping your forehead with a white handkerchief as you walk through the city. The brownish-black grime which takes over the white will drive home the point pretty clearly -- Hyderabad is dusty and there’s no escaping it. The latest statistics released by the AP Pollution Control Board points to an increase in Respirable Particulate Matter (RPM) in most parts of the city, barring a few residential and religious areas where the levels have gone down.“Dust in Hyderabad comes from various sources which include the high levels of construction activity and the ever increasing vehicular traffic,” explains Prasanna Kumar of the Pollution Control Board. “Not to mention the already dusty winds blowing across the plateau.”Jeedimetla is the dustiest part of the city with RPM levels measuring 108 ug/m3 compared to the volume of 103 ug/m3 recorded last year. Abids, Balanagar, Punjagutta, Paradise, Charminar and Uppal are other regions with RPM levels on the wrong side of 100. And among the months, the period between Oct-March is the dustiest with Jeedimetla recording a high of 142 ug/m3, while Balanagar, Panjagutta, Charminar, Paradise, Uppal and Abids all recorded RPM levels greater than 110 in this period. “The air is still during the winter months due to which the particulates do not get dispersed and tend to concentrate in a particular region. And since Hyderabad receives very less rain in a year, this problem is only further compounded,” points out Kumar. And true to the point, the city received lesser rainfall this time compared to last year. An official with the Met Dept says the city received 65 cm of rainfall this year, a 47% reduction from last year. But while the effect of increased dust on humans is well known, for which most people in the city especially women can be seen covering their faces while outdoors, it’s the city’s roadside plants that seem to be having to fend for themselves. “It’s true a lot of dust settles on the leaves of plants in the city. This not only affects their photosynthesis, but when the dust settles on the bottom, even the respiration of the plants is affected. Accordingly, one can observe most plants in the city wearing a yellow tinge to their contours and turning dull and lifeless sooner than expected,” says Anju E Thomas, a fellow researcher at the National Institute of Nutrition. Even Reddy agreed that there was a need for planned construction of roads, to ensure vehicular traffic did not lead to a higher volume of particulate matter in Hyderabad.“The government is acting on our advice by asking commuters to shift to CNG or LPG for vehicular movement. And with planned road construction and better transportation facilities in the future, hopefully we will be able to rein in the problem and let our greens retain their colour,” he says. Till then, Hyderabad can enjoy viewing its green under a blanket of brown.
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