80% of Indian cities have pollution levels exceeding particulate matter standards, it says

A Greenpeace India report says 80% of Indian cities have pollution levels exceeding particulate matter standards. Jharia in Jharkhand tops the list faring as the most polluted city in terms of PM10 (particulate matter 10 micron). 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 102 included under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

The NCAP is a programme of the Union Environment Ministry to reduce pollution by at least 20% in 102 cities that have failed to meet clean-air standards. Cities and States have submitted plans and roadmaps — and they will then be funded by the Centre — to achieve them.

Delhi showed improvement compared to last two years but still clocked pollution levels 3.5 times more than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which is also more than 11 times the WHO prescribed limits for PM10, the report noted.

The ‘Airpocalypse – IV Report’ underlines that the CPCB has identified only 122 non-attainment cities and 102 of them are included under the NCAP till now. These 122 cities are spread across 28 States and nine Union Territories and is ‘incomplete’ leaving 116 more cities which exceed the 60 µg/m3 limit prescribed by NAAQS, according to 2018 annual data.

The report analysed pollution data of 238 cities with at least 52 days of monitoring data.

“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 in it and implement it with the addition of specific pollution and emission reduction targets in a time bound manner,” Avinash Chanchal, Senior Campaigner, Greenpeace India, said in a statement.