The sombre findings of the World Air Quality Reports compiled each year by IQAir, a Swiss technology company, have become an annual ritual. The 2024 edition, which collected data from 40,000 air quality monitoring stations across 8,954 locations in 138 countries, reveals some equally troubling trends for India and the world. According to the 2024 World Air Quality Report, although India has improved its ranking from the third-most polluted country in 2023 to the fifth-most polluted in 2024 after Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Congo, it still holds the record of having six of the 10 most-polluted cities in the world: the national capital, Delhi, remains the most-polluted capital city globally. India’s annual average PM2.5 concentration is 50.6 microgrammes per cubic metre, which is 10 times higher than the level recommended by the World Health Organization. There was one surprising element among the findings. Even though New Delhi’s annual average PM2.5 concentration is 91.6 μg/m3, it was outranked by Byrnihat as the most polluted Indian city with pollution levels of 128.2 μg/m3. This little-known city situated on the Assam-Meghalaya border has been overwhelmed by unchecked industrialisation, unregulated emissions, construction and deforestation. This goes to show that India’s metropolitan-centric discourse on air pollution merits scrutiny since the malaise is taking an equally dangerous toll on smaller cities, towns and even villages. The troubling situation in India is, in fact, consistent with the global picture. Only seven countries out of the 138 studied met the WHO’s recommended level of 5 μg/m3.
The burden of burgeoning pollution on public health and the economy is immense. Apart from causing significant ailments, increasing healthcare costs and reducing productivity, life expectancy in India, the report mentions, has fallen by an estimated 5.2 years as a result of air pollution. The deleterious impacts on the economy are as serious. A study in Lancet Planetary Health had found that lung diseases caused by air pollution accounted for the highest share, 36.6%, of total economic losses in India.
The broad inference that can be drawn from this year’s WAQR is that the slew of measures implemented to curb air pollution notwithstanding — India’s National Clean Air Programme being a case in point — the interventions leave a lot to be desired. Corrective steps are crucial. But their efficacy remains contingent upon the political and the public will to combat air pollution. Neither is in abundance at the moment. For instance, in the Delhi assembly polls, only one of the three major parties in the fray included steps to curb air pollution in its manifesto. In India, a chasm often separates electoral commitments and their implementation. Unless air pollution becomes a central electoral issue on account of public pressure, India will continue to lose lives to this poison.