North India recorded the highest pollution levels this winter, with the Delhi-NCR region being the most polluted, notes a new report. North Indian cities are, on an average, three times more polluted than those in South India as per an analysis of winter air pollution by the Centre for Science and Environment.
The analysis reveals that while some cities have witnessed arresting or stabilisation of trends with small variation, others have experienced either increase or decrease in pollution levels.
The 99 cities which have shown significantly worse pollution levels (between October 1 and January 31) include Gurugram, Lucknow, Jaipur, Visakhapatnam, Agra, Navi Mumbai, Jodhpur and Kolkata.
Cities which have shown substantial improvement in air quality levels include Chennai, Mysuru, Kochi, Patna, Vapi, Chandigarh and Muzaffarpur.
There are 37 cities which have maintained a stable trend. These include Varanasi, Kanpur, Asansol, Pune, Bhopal, Satna, Ahmedabad, Kohima, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad.
However, within these overall trends, there is also a wide variation in peak pollution levels experienced during winter. Thus, 37 cities that are otherwise showing stable or declining seasonal average had their pollution levels rising significantly during winter. These include Aurangabad, Indore, Nashik, Jabalpur, Rupnagar, Bhopal, Dewas, Kochi, and Kozhikode.
When put in an order, the top 23 polluted cities are from North India. While Mysuru is the least polluted, followed by Satna in MP and Kochi in Kerala, Ghaziabad is the most polluted city in the northern belt. Satna and Maihar in Madhya Pradesh and Mysuru in Karnataka were the cleanest cities in the country.
A key finding of the analysis is that mega cities are not the most polluted in any of the regions. Smaller and upcoming cities fare worse in the seasonal peak data and are the pollution hotspots because of vehicles, industry, power plants and waste management.
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“This year, even though the average level of PM2.5 during summer and monsoon months was considerably lower than the previous year due to the summer lockdown, the winter PM2.5 concentration has risen compared to 2019 winter in many cities across regions. This bouncing back of pollution post-lockdown unmasks the high impacts of local and regional pollution,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE’s executive director in-charge of research and advocacy.
The report is based on analysis of real time data from cities in different regions. It throws light on the difference between pollution levels in 2020-21 winter and the previous winters. This was a winter unlike any other, with the unlocking of the economy post pandemic after strict lockdown phases. The data used for the analysis is the publicly available on the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) official online portal Central Control Room for Air Quality Management.
