Pollution troubles in India are old news. We all have kind of gotten used to breathing with difficulty, it doesn’t feel like trouble any more. But does that mean the rising levels of pollutants aren’t troublesome? On the contrary, it is a problem that must be faced and dealt with. On that note, Swiss company IQAir released a report that ranked 39 Indian cities in a list of the 50 most polluted cities in the world.
While you let that sink in, here’s more information on it.
39 Indian Cities Listed In Most Polluted Cities In the World
India dropped from the fifth rank the year before to the eighth-most polluted nation in the world in 2022. Even while the PM2.5 concentration has decreased to 53.3 micrograms/cubic metre, it is still more than 10 times the safe level set by the World Health Organization. Almost 30,000 ground-based monitors, both government- and non-government-operated, provided the information for 131 different countries.
Lahore in Pakistan and Hotan in China are the two most polluted cities, placing Bhiwadi in Rajasthan and Delhi in third and fourth place, respectively. At 92.6 micrograms, Delhi’s PM 2.5 intensity is roughly 20 times the allowable limit.
There is more!
Six Indian cities are included in the top 10, fourteen are listed among the top 20, 39 are listed among the top 50, and astonishingly, 65 are listed among the top 100 cities, up from 61 the previous year. Delhi and New Delhi both rank among the top 10 in a new classification.
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Delhi Has Been Replaced As The Most Polluted Capital In The World
Despite Delhi’s longstanding record as the most polluted metropolis in the world, this year’s study draws a distinction between Delhi and New Delhi, the official name of the city. Both locations are in the top 10, but N’Djamena, the Chadian capital, is the most polluted city in the world, while New Delhi is ranked second.
The pollution levels in Delhi’s neighbouring towns of Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad have decreased, from 34% in Gurugram to 21% in Faridabad, as compared to the typical PM 2.5 levels reported in prior years. Only 8% of Delhi’s value has decreased.
The most polluted one among other big cities is Kolkata, which is second only to Delhi in terms of pollution. Chennai is comparatively the cleanest, with pollution levels 5 times the WHO-approved safe threshold. The two largest cities with higher pollution levels than the national average since 2017 are Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Cover Image Courtesy: Canva