Study on the effect of vehicular pollution on the ambient concentrations of particulate matter and carbon dioxide in Srinagar City

The present study was carried out to monitor the ambient concentrations of particulate matter and carbon dioxide caused by vehicular pollution in Srinagar City of Jammu and Kashmir, India, for a period of 12 months from June 2019 to May 2020 as the major contributions in these areas are due to vehicular movement. Out of five, four locations (viz. Dalgate, Jehangir Chowk, Parimpora and Pantha Chowk) had highest traffic density in the city and the fifth location (Shalimar) had low traffic volume. The sampling was done on every fortnight using AEROCET 831—aerosol mass monitor and CDM 901—CO 2 monitor with each sampling being carried out three times a day, i.e. morning (9:00 am–10:30 am), afternoon (1:00 pm–2:30 pm) and evening (4:30 pm–6:00 pm) with three replications at each site based on the peak traffic hours. The results show that during the whole period, average PM 1 concentrations ranged from 15.10 to 108.9 µg/m 3 , PM 2.5 (28.70–577.50 µg/m 3 ), PM 4 (44.50–780.87 µg/m 3 ), PM 10 (57.13–1225.53 µg/m 3 ), total suspended particulates (77.77–1410.27 µg/m 3 ) and CO 2 (332.4–655.0 ppm). The average concentrations of these parameters showed that the maximum PM 1 concentration was found at Dalgate (53.77 µg/m 3 ) and PM 2.5 had its maximum average concentration at Jehangir Chowk (140.13 µg/m 3 ). Other parameters like PM 4 , PM 10 , TSP and CO 2 had a maximum average values at Jehangir Chowk (240.23 µg/m 3 , 633.40 µg/m 3 , 853.50 µg/m 3 and 533.20 ppm, respectively). The pollution load was observed to be maximum during winter season followed by autumn, summer and spring. The lowest concentration of all pollutants except CO 2 was observed in April 2020 and this might be due to COVID-19 lockdown observed in the country during the same period.