For the fourth consecutive year, New Delhi is found to be the most polluted capital in the world. According to World Air Quality Report 2021, New Delhi was followed by Dhaka, N’Djamena, Dushanbe, and Muscat. Did you know 35 of the 50 cities with the worst air quality were in India? 11 of the 15 most polluted cities in Central and South Asia in 2021, are also in India. IQAir measures air quality levels depending on the concentration PM2.5. These are lung-damaging airborne particles. Read on to know more.
India Has Most Polluted Cities In The World According To IQAir
The ‘World Air Quality Report, 2020’, states “India continues to feature prominently at the top of the most polluted cities ranking, with 22 of the top 30 most polluted cities globally.” Apart from New Delhi, the 21 other Indian cities that are featured in the list include Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Agra and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Bhiwari in Rajasthan, Faridabad, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bandhwari, Gurugram, Yamuna Nagar, Rohtak and Dharuhera in Haryana, and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.
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World Air Quality Report, 2020 Declares New Delhi As Most Polluted Capital
The report states that the most polluted city in the world is Xinjiang in China. New Delhi is the world’s most polluted capital in the world. Over 20 million residents of the city breathed some of the cleanest air during the peak of lockdown last summer, 2020. But during the winter season, due to an increase in farm fire incidents, residents battled toxic air. The report also states that ”Air pollution in India is still dangerously high.” An 11 percent reduction in the annual average of PM2.5 levels in India, still didn’t stop the country from being the third most polluted after Bangladesh and Pakistan. To tackle the toxic air in the city, Delhi actually got its first-ever oxygen bar, Oxy Pure.
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Reasons For India’s Concerning Levels Of Pollution
Apart from China, Ghaziabad is the second most polluted city in the world, followed by Bulandshahar, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow and Bhiwari. The report takes PM2.5 data from 106 countries. The reason for India’s awful pollution levels lies in transportation, electricity generation, construction, waste burning, biomass burning for cooking and episodic agricultural burning. The report further adds that the transportation sector is one of the major contributors to the country’s concerning pollution levels.