39 of World’s 50 most polluted cities in India: Report

• India dropped from fifth to eighth place in terms of the world’s most polluted countries in 2022
• India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are the top three most polluted countries
• An estimated 70 lakh premature deaths reported every year worldwide

India was the world’s eighth most polluted country in 2022, dropping from fifth place the previous year, according to the ‘World Air Quality Report’ released by Swiss firm IQAir, out of the 50 most polluted cities in the world, 39 are in India.

On the basis of the data collected from 131 countries using over 30,000 ground-based monitors, the report found that India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are the top three most polluted countries. Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, and New Zealand were among the few countries that complied with the World Health Organization (WHO) PM2.5 guidelines.

Indian cities dominate the top of the list which includes over 7,300 cities, the most the rankings have ever covered since 2017 when it covered less than 2,200, according to the report. It puts the country’s economic cost of air pollution at $150 billion. The transportation sector alone causes 20-35 per cent of the PM 2.5 pollution. Other sources of pollution are industrial units, coal-fired power plants and biomass burning.

Lahore in Pakistan and Hotan in China are the top two most-polluted cities after which ranks Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi and Delhi in fourth place. At 92.6 micrograms, Delhi’s PM 2.5 level is almost 20 times the safe limit, reported NDTV.

The report also revealed that 31 cities, including ten in Uttar Pradesh and seven in Haryana, have seen a steep decline in pollution levels, while 38 cities and towns have seen a rise in pollution compared to previous years’ averages.

Delhi is no longer the most polluted capital in the world as this year the report made a distinction between ‘greater’ Delhi and New Delhi the capital. However, both are in the top 10. On the other hand, New Delhi is ranked 2nd and the infamous distinction of being the world’s most polluted capital goes to Chad’s N’Djamena.

Kolkata was ranked the most polluted after Delhi among the six metro cities. While Chennai was stated to be the cleanest with pollution ‘just’ 5x the WHO’s safe level. Hyderabad and Bengaluru saw an uptick in pollution levels over the average since 2017.

“Air pollution continues to be the world’s largest environmental health threat. Worldwide, poor air quality accounts for 93 billion days lived with illness and over six million deaths each year. The total economic cost equates to over $8 trillion dollars, surpassing 6.1 percent of the global annual GDP. Exposure to air pollution causes and aggravates several health conditions which include, but are not limited to, asthma, cancer, lung illnesses, heart disease, and premature mortality,” the report said.

Air pollution is the single biggest environmental threat to human health, according to the WHO. Every year, exposure to air pollution is estimated to cause 7 million premature deaths.

According to NDTV, 72 of the top hundred cities are in South Asia. Even though almost all these cities are in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh rank higher in the list of the ten most polluted countries. But air pollution is a common problem with these countries sharing ‘air sheds’, i.e. pollutants from one area moving to another.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM