Air pollution is a serious concern in India, with significant health impacts. Smart Air has analyzed data from 2023 to highlight the “20 Most Polluted Cities in India”.
Scroll down below for the full rundown of India’s most polluted cities and their annual PM2.5 levels. It’s worth noting that the World Health Organization suggests an annual limit of only 5 micrograms for PM2.5.
Rankings: 20 Most Polluted Cities in India in 2023
1. Byrnihat (151.5 µg/m3)
2. Begusarai (146.8 µg/m3)
3. Angul (121.6 µg/m3)
4. Delhi (100.5 µg/m3)
5. Balasore (92.9 µg/m3)
6. Bhubaneswar (91.8 µg/m3)
7. Katihar (89.5 µg/m3)
8. Patna (89 µg/m3)
9. Faridabad (86.2 µg/m3)
10. Muzaffarnagar (84.8 µg/m3)
11. Noida (83 µg/m3)
12. Bhagalpur (82 µg/m3)
13. Meerut (80.7 µg/m3)
14. Dharuhera (79.4 µg/m3)
15. Manesar (77.7 µg/m3)
16. Ghaziabad (77.7 µg/m3)
17. Baghpat (77.4 µg/m3)
18. Bhiwadi (77.1 µg/m3)
19. Agartala (76.30 µg/m3)
20. Bahadurgarh (75.8 µg/m3)
Read More: The 25 Least Polluted Cities in the World for 2024?
Analysis of Most Polluted Cities in India
Among the 20 most polluted cities in India, 5 cities are located in Uttar Pradesh, 4 cities are from Haryana and Bihar, and 3 cities are from Odisha. It is not surprising to see that these states are located in Northern India as it is known that the South has better air quality as compared to the North.
One key issue is the lack of enough monitoring devices. Many cities in India don’t have sufficient stations to measure air quality, which leads to underreporting of pollution levels. Additionally, not all cities have the same number of monitoring stations. For example, Delhi has over 40.
All of the ranked cities had average air quality many times above the WHO recommended healthy limit. The worst city on the list, Byrnihat, averaged PM2.5 levels over 30 times higher than the WHO recommended limit. Even the best city on the list (ranked 20th), Bahadurgarh, averaged PM2.5 levels over 15 times the WHO recommended limit.
How Air Pollution Was Measured to Find Most Polluted Cities in India
There are various pollutants (both particles and gases) that can be found in the air. One of the most commonly tracked pollutants is very small, fine particles called PM2.5.
These small pollutants are under 2.5 micrograms in width and are considered to be one of the more dangerous pollutants due to their ability to enter deep into the lungs and bloodstream. The above rankings of the most polluted cities in India were ranked based on their 2023 average PM2.5 pollution levels.
Open Data
The raw PM2.5 2023 India pollution data used for the rankings of India’s most polluted cities are openly available on CPCB.
Watch: Run Down of Top 5 Most Polluted Cities in the World
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