India had 13 of 20 most polluted world cities in 2024: Study

Thirteen of the world’s 20 most polluted cities in 2024 were in India, with Byrnihat town in Meghalaya topping the list, according to the 2024 World Air Quality Report published on Tuesday by Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.

The report analysed PM2.5 air quality data collected from 8,954 cities in 138 countries, regions and territories.

PM2.5 refers to tiny airborne particulate matter that is about 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair and can easily be breathed into the lungs and the bloodstream.

Delhi was the most polluted capital city in the world in 2024, according to the report. India was the fifth most polluted country, down from third in 2023, and home to six of the nine most polluted global cities.

The Indian cities featured in the 20 most polluted places are: Byrnihat, Delhi, Punjab’s Mullanpur, Faridabad, Loni, Gurugram, Ganganagar, Greater Noida, Bhiwadi, Muzaffarnagar, Hanumangarh and Noida.

Byrnihat, situated on the Assam-Meghalaya border, saw an annual average PM2.5 concentration of 128.2 μg/m³. The World Health Organization’s Global Air Quality Guidelines prescribes a “safe” annual average PM2.5 concentration of 5 μg/m³.

The annual average concentration of PM2.5 in India stood at 50.6 μg/m³ in 2024, more than 10 times higher than the World Health Organization’s guidelines. The figure was 54.4 μg/m³ in 2023, according...

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