The air quality across Indian cities has been worsening for the past two weeks. This trend witnessed an uptick following the festival of Diwali which saw the bursting of firecrackers. Emissions and fumes from these crackers caused pollution levels to rise across various states.
Major cities across India including the national capital, Delhi, and the financial capital, Mumbai, all are battling the problem of pollution. ‘Severe’ to ‘very poor’ air quality was registered across various cities in the Indo-Gangetic plain in the past few weeks which improved just before Diwali due to Western disturbances.
Stubble burning in this region has been the main contributor to the rising pollution levels along with vehicular emissions. Among the top 10 cities with the worst air quality as of 6:30 am, 2 were in Haryana, 3 were in Uttar Pradesh, two in Bihar, one in Punjab, one in Rajasthan and one was the national capital, Delhi. Nine cities recorded “severe” AQI levels today. The national capital, Delhi, ranked fourth on the list with 24-hour average AQI.
According to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data of 242 cities on November 13, no city registered severe air quality, 53 cities registered ‘very poor’ air quality, 85 cities registered ‘poor’ air quality, 75 cities registered ‘moderate’ air quality while only 32 cities among 242 were in the ‘satisfactory’ to ‘good’ range.
According to real-time data from the CPCB, Uttar Pradesh’s Bhagpat holds the title of being the most polluted city today with an AQI of 423 at 6:30 am. It is closely followed by Gurugram in Haryana whose AQI stood at 400. These two cities registered ‘severe’ air quality.
Other cities also experiencing high and critical levels of pollution include Hanumangarh in Rajasthan whose AQI stood at 364, Bhiwadi in Rajasthan whose AQI stood at 363, Dharuhera in Haryana whose AQI stood at 363, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh with an AQI at 362, Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh with an AQI at 359, Siwan in Bihar with AQI at 358, Hisar at 356, Angul in Odisha whose AQI stood at 355, Ballabgarh in Haryana whose AQI stood at 352, Bahadurgarh in Haryana whose AQI stood at 347, Jind in Haryana with an AQI of 337, Purnia in Bihar with AQI at 331 and Manesar in Haryana with an AQI of 330.