Northeast Desk, 11th January: Byrnihat in Meghalaya has claimed the top spot as the most polluted city in India in 2023, closely trailed by Begusarai in Bihar and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, according to a report from the independent think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
Despite Delhi’s reputation for elevated air pollution levels, particularly during winter, it secured the eighth position in the rankings. The CREA report analyzed 227 cities with air quality data available for over 75% of the days in 2023, including 85 under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
The data disclosed that 78 out of the 85 NCAP cities exceeded the NAAQS (National Ambient Air Quality Standards) for PM10 levels. The NCAP, initiated in 2019, aims for a 20-30% reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024 in 131 cities that didn’t meet air quality standards from 2011 to 2015. The government has now set a new target of achieving a 40% reduction in particulate matter concentration in these cities by 2026.
Sunil Dahia, CREA’s South Asia analyst, highlighted that, after five years of NCAP implementation, only 44 out of the 131 non-attainment cities have completed source apportionment studies. Due to the absence of these studies, 64% of funds allocated under NCAP were utilized for dust mitigation and ineffective solutions like smog guns, leading to inefficient use of public funds.
The CREA report underscored that only 37 NCAP-covered cities achieved PM10 levels below the annual targets set by the program. Notably, in 2023, 118 cities not part of NCAP breached the national air ambient quality standards for PM10, challenging the assumption that cities outside the program are necessarily cleaner.
Of the top 20 most polluted cities, only seven are currently under NCAP. Byrnihat, covered by NCAP, recorded the highest annual average PM10 concentration at 301 micrograms per cubic meter, while Silchar in Assam reported the lowest PM10 level at 29 micrograms per cubic meter in 2023.
Begusarai in Bihar (average annual PM10 level of 265 micrograms per cubic meter) and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh (228 micrograms per cubic meter) secured the second and third positions among the most polluted cities. The report emphasized that PM10 concentration in the top 10 polluted cities exceeded Indian NAAQS by 3-5 times and surpassed WHO limits by 13-20 times.