New Delhi: Fourteen Indian cities, including country’s capital New Delhi, are in top 20 most-polluted cities of the world. The AQI (Air Quality Index) near US Embassy in Delhi showed a reading of more than 250, which is termed as ‘very unhealthy’, on Wednesday.
According to data released by World Health Organization (WHO), Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh leads the chart as the most-polluted city in the world with PM 2.5 levels. The average PM 2.5 levels were 17 times the safe limit prescribed by WHO. The other Indian cities in decreasing order of pollution on the list are Faridabad, Varanasi, Gaya, Patna, Delhi, Lucknow, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Patiala and Jodhpur.
The study also stated that air pollution resulted in around 4.2 million deaths around the world in 2016. To top it all, 90% of the population now breathe polluted air. The report also said more than 3 billion people breathe deadly smoke from polluting stoves and unclean fuels and blamed industrial regulatory practices that are not strictly enforced in the country for it.
The pollution levels in 2017 had crossed 70 times the safe limit in Delhi, which resulted in the government declaring a public emergency.
The WHO did praise India’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which has helped 37 million women living below the poverty line switch to cleaner LPG fuel for cooking in just 2 years.
The head of WHO’s public health, Maria Neira, said that India needs to follow China which has systematically reduced its air pollution levels.
Forest and Climate Change Minister Harsh Vardhan has said that to address pollution from bio-mass burning, industries, vehicular emissions, construction and demolition activities, selection of landfill sites for municipal solid waste management and others, the environment ministry and other agencies such as the Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Municipal Corporation and other govt departments need to come together.
