Top Ten India’s Most Polluted Cities (2023)

Cities in India have been trying to reduce their PM2.5 levels though the top ten which have failed to do so are present here in the list of India’s Most Polluted Cities (2023).

While Delhi is at the top of the list of most polluted cities, Faridabad ranks second with an annual PM2.5 concentration of 95.6µg/m3. Ghaziabad is third with a reading of 91.25µg/m3.

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After Four years of the initiation of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), Delhi ranked as the most polluted out of the 131 non-attainment cities.

Delhi ranked India’s most polluted city. Not surprised. pic.twitter.com/pIPBTeJeMi

— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) January 11, 2023

What is NCAP?

The NCAP began on January 10, 2019. It states that  131 non-attainment cities not meeting the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for the period of 2011-15 have to level down their pollution levels from the 2017 baseline by 25-30%. The Centre in September 2022 set a target of reducing pollution by 40% with a deadline of 2026.

Delhi seems to be lagging behind the deadline, recording only a 7% reduction in its PM2.5 level.

This was shown when the data was compared to the 2019 levels, the analysis was based on Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. The annual national safe limit for PM2.5 is 40µg/m3.

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The new gas chamber. Wonder how this will look in 10 years. #AQI #delhipollution pic.twitter.com/gTdNtNIHct

— Soum Paul (@soumpaul) January 7, 2023

Top Ten India’s Most Polluted Cities (2023)

Analysis of the situation 

Director of Climate Trends, Aarti Khosla said 

“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,” 

The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) conducted another analysis where the data showed Delhi featured amongst the list of 48 out of 131 non-attainment cities which were lagging behind targets set by the Centre.

Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at CREA said, 

“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 analyzed financial year data, as the Centre has now linked the financial year’s performance with the release of funds,”

With #AQI touching 450 the entire week, #Delhi air is choking. Irritation in nose/throat and mild headache too (from trying to avoid long breaths). This is now serious and makes me really sad.
Who else is feeling like this and what are you doing? Please share#DELHIPOLLUTION

— cheena kapoor (@cheenakapoor) January 11, 2023

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