JOIN USIndia 8th most polluted country in World: Report
India is 8th most polluted country in the world and New Delhi second most polluted national capital when it comes to average PM 2.5 pollutants, as per a report by IQAir.
World Air Quality Report 2022 is based on PM2.5 aggregated from both regulatory air quality monitoring instrumentation and low-cost air quality sensors, the Swiss Air quality technology company said. It assessed data from 131 countries which were categorised into seven groups based on the concentration of PM 2.5 pollutants.
As per the World Health Organization (WHO), the PM2.5 particles should not exceed 5 micrograms per cubic metre. With 53.3 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic metre, India found itself in the group of top 10 polluted countries where the pollutants were 10 times higher than the WHO standards. including Chad, Iraq, Pakistan and Bangladesh. India performed worse than China (30.6 micrograms/cub metre) and even Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, besides several poor nations starting from Rwanda to Uganda.
Within India, Delhi (92.6 micrograms/cubic metre), Kolkata (59), Mumbai (46.7), Hyderabad (42.4), Bengaluru (31.5) and Chennai (25.3) were listed as major polluted cities. The most polluted city, Bhiwadi in Rajasthan, had 92.7 micrograms/cubic metre.
"India's annual average PM2.5 level in 2022 was 53.3 micro gram/cubic metre, only slightly lower than the 2021 average of 58.1. In 2021, 12 of the 15 most polluted cities in Central and South Asia were in India. That number stayed the same in 2022.
"Air pollution is the second biggest risk factor for disease based on the 2019 Global Burden of Disease report, and the economic cost of air pollution is estimated to exceed $150 billion annually.. Air quality monitoring has increased over the past years in India, but the country still lacks the ability to track the progress of reduction strategies through an effective and reliable emissions inventory," the report said, stressing the need for a national database to determine sectoral emission reductions.
Pollution goes up in Bengaluru
A comparison of PM 2.5 pollutants in 2021 and 2022 in six Indian cities showed that the air quality in Bengaluru and Hyderabad got worse while others saw marginal improvement.
The PM2.5 levels in Bengaluru went up from 29 to 31.5 micrograms/cubic metre. In Hyderabad the increase was from 39.4 to 42.4 micrograms/cubic metre. Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai saw a marginal drop in the level of pollutants by a few micrograms. Kolkata remained the same.