(V.News) – Byrnihat in Meghalaya, Begusarai in Bihar, and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh were the three most polluted cities in India in 2023, according to a report made public on Wednesday.
Based on a report by the independent think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Delhi, known for its persistent air pollution levels during the winter, ranked eighth most polluted.
According to Sunil Dahia, an analyst specializing in South Asia at CREA, 227 cities were analyzed in 2023 for which air quality data was available for more than 75% of the days.
There were 85 of these cities that were part of the NCAP, or National Clean Air Programme. The results revealed that PM10 levels exceeded the NAAQS (60 micrograms per cubic meter) in 78 out of the 85 NCAP cities.
Launched in 2019, the NCAP targets 131 cities that failed to meet air quality requirements between 2011 and 2015 to reduce PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations by 20–30% by 2024.
The government has set a new objective to reduce particulate matter concentrations in these cities by 40% by 2026.”After five years of NCAP implementation, only 44 cities out of the 131 non-attainment cities have concluded the source apportionment studies,” stated Dahia.
“Due to the absence of these studies, 64 percent of the funds allocated under NCAP have been utilized solely for dust mitigation and ineffective solutions like smog guns, resulting in the inefficient use of public funds,” according to him.
According to the CREA research, out of all the cities that were part of the NCAP program, only 37 were able to attain PM10 levels below the yearly objectives. The national air quality requirements for PM10 were violated in 118 cities that are not yet part of NCAP in 2023.
“This indicates that cities not included in NCAP aren’t necessarily cleaner,” he said.
India’s twenty most polluted cities are now under the NCAP
Only seven of India’s twenty most polluted cities are now under the NCAP. In 2023, Silchar in Assam had the lowest PM10 level at 29 micrograms per cubic meter while Byrnihat, which is under NCAP, had the highest annual average PM10 concentration at 301 micrograms per cubic meter.
Begusarai in Bihar (average annual PM10 level of 265 micrograms per cubic meter) and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh (228 micrograms per cubic meter) were second and third among the most polluted cities.
Bihar has 18 of the top 50 polluted cities, followed by Haryana and Rajasthan with eight each.
Listen to the newest songs only on JioSaavn.com. The survey found that PM10 concentrations in the top ten polluted cities were 3-5 times higher than Indian NAAQS and surpassed WHO guidelines by 13–20 times.
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