Yellow droplets point to acid rain in Odisha capital!

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Feb 3:

The ecological ramifications arising out of the emerging concrete jungles and the fast depleting green cover in the Odisha capital has kept the denizens on the fragile plane as panic grips the temple city with an aberration in the climatic conditions.

Panic struck the residents of the Old Town area here in the wee hours on Tuesday when they found yellow droplets around, almost everywhere.

This abnormal phenomenon has been marked since last three-four days in this area.

The fitness conscious people, who set out early for morning walk, noticed it in the early hours but were clueless about the reason behind it.

‘‘I have been witnessing yellow droplets since last 3-4 days. Initially, I thought it to be bird shit and ignore it. When I discovered it on roof top, on vehicles parked outside and atop leaves, I realized it’s something unusual beyond our knowledge,’’ Sudhanshu Sekhar Mishra, a resident of Old Town area said.

Mishra is not the only one who has been witnessing this phenomenon; scores of residents in the Old Town area have been observing this yellow cover descending between 4 and half past 4 in the morning. This has left the residents panicking in the area.

Yellow droplets are a resultant of high sulphur levels in the atmosphere. However, sulphur level in the air in the Old Town area is unlikely. This could be due to some other reason, an environmentalist opined.

Notably, wet deposition or acid rain refers to precipitation from the atmosphere containing higher than normal amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids.

‘‘The sky is clear, not foggy, since last 3-4 days. The yellow droplets are not a result of weather change. Rather, it is likely an environment related issue,’’ Regional MeT Director Sarat Chandra Sahu said.

When asked about this, Odisha Pollution Control Board member secretary Rajeev Kumar said, ‘‘I haven’t come across such complaints. We would investigate about the cause behind this.’’

It may be recalled that dripping walls in the first week of January this year had left the denizens sweating in the city. As walls and floors at homes – in shanties as well as high rise apartments – oozed profusely and mirrors on the wall got foggy despite repeated scrubbing, people were at their wit’s end trying to fathom what the phenomenon was all about since they had never experienced anything like it before.

This condition was the result of the fact that the moisture could not disperse into the atmosphere. Besides, the moisture content in the atmosphere had reached saturation point beyond which evaporation could not take place as a result of which the buildings were dripping and sweating in some parts of the state.