Gurugram takes top spot, while Delhi is most-polluted capital in world; NCR region worst hit
Satellite cities of metros, industrial towns and tier-two cities in plains of Northern India seem to dominate the most polluted cities in the world in 2018, with NCR cities Gurugram, Ghaziabad and three other leading the top six of the top ten. Worse, the study, that analyzed Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) of 3,000 cities, suggests that of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, 16 are in India. Millenium city Gurugram was the most polluted city in the world with an average PM 2.5 concentration of 135.8 microgram/cubic metre. However, pollution data for the city was available from only three stations.
Among metros, Delhi was the most polluted, followed by Kolkata, Mumbai (73), Chennai and Bengaluru.
Interestingly, the global study, prepared by IQAir Air Visual and Greenpeace, said that Beijing, which was once the most polluted in the world, has improved remarkably and ranked 122.
The report was based on air quality data of 2018 sourced from real-time and near real-time public monitoring sources as well as validated air quality monitors operated by private individuals and organisations, the report stated.
The high number of satellite cities and urban agglomerations in the list of most polluted cities indicated that perhaps the worst is yet to come, experts said. "India will only urbanise more moving forward. But we need to see this is happening at what cost. We have to protect the environment and health of the people," said Amit Bhatt, director, integrated urban transport, World Resources Institute, India.
"It is essential to know the sources of pollution and quantum of pollution. For the former, we need more source apportionment studies to curb pollution sources. Unless we know that, how will we fight against pollution?" Bhatt added.
The health costs of growing pollution were holding back the Indian economy in terms of its fallout on expenditure for health ailments, Greenpeace said. "Air pollution steals our livelihoods and our futures, but we can change that. In addition to human lives lost, there's an estimated global cost of 225 billion dollars in lost labour, and trillions in medical costs. this has enormous impacts, on our health and on our wallets," said Yeb Sano, Executive Director of Greenpeace South East Asia.
Methodology
The report was based on AQI data of 2018 sourced from real-time and near real-time public monitoring sources as well as validated air quality monitors operated by individuals and orgs
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