Friday, 25 April 2025
Friday, 25 April 2025
A new global air quality report has revealed that 12 of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in India, with Byrnihat in Meghalaya ranking as the most polluted globally.
The World Air Quality Report 2024 by Swiss air quality technology firm IQAir, released on Tuesday, also found that Delhi remains the most polluted capital city worldwide.
Only seven countries met the World Health Organization's air quality standards in 2024: Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Estonia, and Iceland.
Meanwhile, Chad and Bangladesh topped the list of the world's most polluted countries, with average PM2.5 levels 15 times higher than WHO guidelines.
The WHO recommends levels of no more than 5 mg/cu m, a standard met by only 17% of cities last year.
India, fifth in the smog rankings behind Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, saw average PM2.5 fall 7% on the year to 50.6 mg/cu m.
But it accounted for 12 of the top 20 most polluted cities, with Byrnihat, in a heavily industrialised part of the country's northeast, in first place, registering an average PM2.5 level of 128 mg/cu m.
The Indian cities among the world's top 20 most polluted include Byrnihat, Delhi, Mullanpur, Faridabad, Loni, Gurugram, Ganganagar, Greater Noida, Bhiwadi, Muzaffarnagar, Hanumangarh, and Noida. Overall, 35% of Indian cities recorded PM2.5 levels exceeding 10 times the WHO's recommended limit of 5 micrograms per cubic metre.
Byrnihat, in Meghalaya, suffers from industrial emissions from distilleries, iron, and steel plants. Meanwhile, Delhi’s air quality deteriorates during winter due to a combination of vehicular emissions, paddy-straw burning, firecrackers, and unfavorable weather conditions.
Air pollution remains a serious public health crisis, reducing life expectancy in India by an estimated 5.2 years. A Lancet Planetary Health study reported that between 2009 and 2019, 1.5 million deaths in India annually were linked to long-term PM2.5 exposure.
PM2.5 particles, which are smaller than 2.5 microns, can penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, causing breathing issues, heart disease, and cancer. These pollutants primarily originate from vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, and crop burning
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, former WHO chief scientist and advisor to the Indian Health Ministry, stressed that India has improved air quality data collection, but action remains insufficient.
"We have the data; now we need action," she told PTI. She suggested expanding public transport, imposing fines on certain vehicles, and subsidizing LPG cylinders for the poorest families to reduce reliance on biomass fuels. Strict enforcement of industrial emission laws is also crucial.
