Among India’s top 10 polluted cities in January, two were in Bihar, two in Rajasthan, two in Uttar Pradesh, one in Assam, one in Haryana, and one in Himachal Pradesh
One in five cities covered under India’s National Clean Air Programme does not have a continuous ambient air quality monitoring station (CAAQMS), according to a new analysis.
The report by the independent research organisation Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) also said that Delhi was the most polluted city in the country in January with a monthly average PM2.5 concentration of 206 micrograms per cubic metre, surpassing the daily National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) each day of the month.
The daily average permissible limit (or NAAQS) for PM2.5 and PM10 is 60 micrograms per cubic metre and 100 micrograms per cubic metre, respectively.
Among India’s top 10 polluted cities in January, two were in Bihar, two in Rajasthan, two in Uttar Pradesh, one in Assam, one in Haryana, and one in Himachal Pradesh.
The analysis by CREA showed that only 101 of the 131 cities covered under the NCAP have a CAAQMS installed as of January 2024, leaving 30 other cities without any transparent information on real-time pollution levels.
The 30 cities which do not have a CAAQMS include Ranchi, Jammu, Guntur, Nellore, Jammu, Vadodara, Madurai, and Raebareli, among others.
The NCAP, initiated in 2019, aims for a 20-30 percent reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations by 2024 in 131 cities that had not met prescribed air quality standards from 2011 to 2015.
The government has now set a new target of achieving a 40 percent reduction in particulate matter concentration in these cities by 2026.
”The combination of low wind speed and cooler temperatures in northern India led to the formation of stable atmospheric conditions, hindering the rapid dispersion of emissions and resulting in the accumulation of pollutants near the ground, elevating ambient air pollution levels,” said Sunil Dahiya, analyst at CREA.
”While natural atmospheric conditions are beyond human control, it is the baseline emissions that primarily contribute to the escalation of hazardous air pollution levels in any region,” Dahiya said.