Most Polluted Cities In Central And South Asia: 10 Indian Cities Feature In The List

World Air Quality Report 2024: In a disappointing yet expected development, five Indian cities feature among the most polluted ones in Central and South Asia region, according to the World Air Quality Report 2024. Central and South Asia is one of the worst polluted regions globally, with five of the ten most polluted countries and nine of the ten most polluted cities globally.

Within the most polluted regional cities in this zone, five of ten belong to India, four to Pakistan and the remaining one to Kazakhstan.

According to the annual report released by Swiss company iQAir, Meghalaya's Byrnihat has the worst PM2.5 concentration, followed by Delhi, among the ten most polluted regional cities in this region. Moreover, Faridabad, Loni and Gurugram are also ranked among the top 10. On the other hand, Karaganda in Kazakhstan has the 3rd worst PM2.5 concentration after Delhi, followed by Pakistan’s Lahore.

Within the top 15 list, 10 cities with the worst PM2.5 concentration are in India. They are:

Byrnihat (1), Delhi (2), Faridabad (5), Loni (6), Gurugram (10), Ganganagar (11), Greater Noida (12), Bhiwandi (13), Muzaffarnagar (14), Hanumangarh (15).

The report considered the following countries in Central and South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Only 0.8% of the regional cities in these countries met the WHO annual PM2.5 guideline in 2024.

The report, which tracks global air quality, has compiled data from nearly 9,000 cities, focusing on harmful PM2.5 levels. About 40,000 regulatory air quality monitoring stations and low-cost sensors were used to compile the data.

PM2.5 concentration is fine particulate matter suspended in the air that is less than or equal to 2.5 microns in diameter.

"The air quality metrics included in this 2024 report derive from IQAir’s real-time online monitoring platform, which systematically validates, calibrates, and harmonises data from air quality monitoring stations globally," the report added.

Air pollution is the second leading cause of death globally, and the second biggest risk for deaths in children under five, after malnutrition. In 2021, air pollution was responsible for 8.1 million deaths, with 58% of these linked to PM2.5 pollution, the report added.