Greenpeace report names India's most polluted cities, Delhi makes marginal improvement

As India reels under choking pollution, Greenpeace India on Tuesday released a report marking the ten most polluted cities in the country. According to the Airpocalypse report, Jharia in Jharkhand tops the list, faring as the most polluted city in India in terms of PM10 and Lunglei in Mizoram is the least polluted.

In a slight relief to the Delhiites, the national capital has shown marginal signs of improvement compared to the last two years. Delhi is the tenth most polluted city in India now as compared to its eighth spot in 2019. However, it still remains more than 3.5 times more polluted than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and more than 11 times the WHO prescribed limits for PM10.

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The Greenpeace India has identified 231 Indian cities out of 287 with more than 52 monitoring days data in 2018 under National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP), where air pollution levels exceeded the 60 µg/m3 limits for PM10 as prescribed under the NAAQS.

The report also highlights that almost all states including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Bihar have a bigger number of non-attainment cities compared to the current number included under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

Shockingly, six of the ten most polluted cities in India are in Uttar Pradesh-- Noida, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Allahabad, Moradabad and Firozabad.

In January 2019, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released the first-ever NCAP for India. Under the programme, the cities are expected to reduce air pollution levels by 20-30 per cent by 2024 from 2017 levels. However, this report highlights that CPCB has identified only 122 non-attainment cities and 102 of them included under NCAP till now. These 122 cities are spread across 28 states and 9 union territories and are incomplete leaving 116 more cities which exceeding 60 µg/m3 limit prescribed by NAAQS according to 2018 annual data and should be included in the non-attainment category.

The report is a clear indication that MoEFCC needs to include all non-attainment cities under the fold of NCAP. While all the cities listed under NCAP have submitted city-specific clean air action plan, which has been approved by CPCB for ground implementation, but almost none of these action plans till date have a definite overall percentage reduction target for 2024. The plans also miss out on interim targets for absolute pollution reduction, or sectoral emission load reduction targets; diesel and coal consumption caps and reduction targets etc.

Commenting on the worsening state of affairs, Greenpeace India’s Senior Campaigner Avinash Chanchal said, “ It’s worrying to see that more than 80% cities had PM10 levels exceeding the 60 µg/m3 limits for PM10 prescribed under National Ambient Air Quality Standards. If we want to make NCAP truly a ‘national program’, then we have to include all polluted cities into it and implement it with the addition of specific pollution and emission reduction targets in a time-bound manner.”

The city-level action plans provided by the non-attainment cities under NCAP also lacks regional and air-shed level approach and are too city-centric i.e, of course, vehicular emissions within the city are a part of the problem but the major emitters in the nearby regions should not be ignored. More emphasis needs to be laid on the regional and air-shed approach for air quality control.”

“What is the use of conducting 102 source apportionment studies for non-attainment cities if we are going to ignore regional sources of pollution and only quantify sources with the city’s administrative boundaries and are not including the sectoral targets and policies for emission reductions?” added Avinash Chanchal.