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Delhi is India’s most polluted city: Study

Jan 11, 2023 06:16 AM IST

On the list of most polluted cities, Faridabad ranks second with an annual PM2.5 concentration of 95.6µg/m3, followed by Ghaziabad (91.25µg/m3), as per the analysis. But while NCR cities rank poorly in the analysis, they have done much better than Delhi to reduce their PM2.5 levels.

Four years after the start of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), Delhi ranks as the most polluted out of the 131 non-attainment cities, with an annual PM2.5 concentration of 99.7 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3), an analysis carried out by the environmental organisation Climate Trends released on Tuesday showed.

At Kartavya Path in New Delhi on Tuesday. The top nine polluted cities are from across the Indo-Gangetic plains. (ANI)
At Kartavya Path in New Delhi on Tuesday. The top nine polluted cities are from across the Indo-Gangetic plains. (ANI)

Under NCAP, which began on January 10, 2019, the 131 non-attainment cities -- cities not meeting the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for the period of 2011-15 -- are supposed to reduce their pollution levels from the 2017 baseline by 25-30%, with the Centre in September 2022 setting a target of 40% reduction by 2026.

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However, Delhi appears to be lagging behind the deadline, recording only a 7% reduction in its PM2.5 levels compared to the 2019 levels, the analysis, based on Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data, showed.

The annual national safe limit for PM2.5 is 40µg/m3.

On the list of most polluted cities, Faridabad ranks second with an annual PM2.5 concentration of 95.6µg/m3, followed by Ghaziabad (91.25µg/m3), as per the analysis. But while NCR cities rank poorly in the analysis, they have done much better than Delhi to reduce their PM2.5 levels, with Ghaziabad recording a reduction by 22.2% between 2019 and 2023, while Noida has improved by 29.8% in the same period.

However, if PM10 is considered, Ghaziabad ranks the most polluted of the 131 non-attainment cities, recording an annual average of 217.5µg/m3, followed by Faridabad (215.3µg/m3) and Delhi (213.2µg/m3). If PM10 improvement was analysed, Ghaziabad improved its annual levels between 2019 and 2022 by 10.2%. Delhi, however, logging an improvement of just 1.8%.

The annual national safe limit for PM10 is 60µg/m3.

Aarti Khosla, director of Climate Trends, said while cities across the country are showing gradual improvement, the top four cities with the highest PM2.5 concentration are Delhi and NCR cities.

“The top nine cities are also from across the Indo-Gangetic plains, which is a problem region as a whole. Coastal cities like Mumbai are equally affected by air pollution, the analysis reveals. While the CPCB has already issued stricter reduction targets for the non-attainment cities, we are just a year away from 2024, the original target for NCAP, and many cities, including Delhi, are still far from reaching their reduction targets,” she said.

Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said while NCR cities have been showing a gradual improvement over the last few years, these cities still require continued improvement to reach the annual safe limit.

“For Delhi, another 60% reduction in PM2.5 levels is needed to meet the safe standards. Similarly, for other NCR towns, PM2.5 level has to come down by 50-55%. While meeting the NCAP targets is important, the long-term goal is to meet these national standards,” she said, stating smaller NCR towns also have greater scope of improvement.

“We will have to study action on the ground for each NCR city to ascertain why Ghaziabad or Noida have recorded greater improvements than Delhi, but if NCR is considered an air-shed and similar sources are tackled all across the region, all NCR cities will benefit,” she said.

In another analysis released on Tuesday, which was carried out by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), an environmental research organisation, Delhi featured amongst the list of 48 out of 131 non-attainment cities which were lagging behind targets set by the Centre.

CREA’s analysis comparison showed while Delhi’s PM10 levels between the financial year 2021-22 should have gone below 164µg/m3, the current annual PM10 levels, based on the financial year 2021-22, is 196µg/m3.

“This shows that Delhi is well behind its targets year-on-year and accordingly, is unlikely to meet the 2026 long-term target. We have analysed financial year data, as the Centre has now linked the financial year’s performance with the release of funds,” said Sunil Dahiya, analyst at CREA.

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