Delhi most polluted city, Faridabad comes second

New Delhi: A ranking of cities based on annual average of Particulate Matter (PM)10 levels by Greenpeace India-placed Delhi as the worst polluted city, followed by Faridabad, Bhiwadi, and Patna.

The national capital remained the worst impacted city with annual PM10 levels at 290 ug/m3 (microgramme per cubic metre), exceeding approximately five times the national ambient air quality standards.

The report, which analysed PM10 annual average recorded for 280 cities that have 630 million or 53 per cent citizens of the country’s total population revealed that close to 550 million people live in areas exceeding national standards for PM10, including 180 million living in areas where air pollution levels are more than twice the stipulated limit of 60 ug/m3 that has been set by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The ambient air quality standard for PM10, is 100 ug/m3.

A massive part of the population, 580 million (47 per cent) of the population lived in areas where no air quality data isd available.

Delhi was the worst polluted city with 290 ug/m3, followed by Faridabad, Bhiwadi, Patna with annual average ranging from 272, 262, and 261 ug/m3 respectively. Surprisingly, Dehradun in Uttrakhand also made it to the top 10 list of worst polluted cities with 238 ug/m3, annual average of PM10.

The report highlighted that 47 million children under five years reside in areas where PM10 levels exceeded CPCB annual limits.

Most polluted cities are spread across Indo-Gangetic basin with southern cities being slightly better off than their northern counterparts, it said.

Sunil Dahiya, senior campaigner, Greenpeace India said, “Only 16 per cent of the population living in the districts have real time air quality data available showing how we are responding to the national health crisis.”