Reduction in PM2.5 Pollution Levels in Indian Cities
Indian cities have achieved significant progress in reducing PM2.5 pollution levels over the period from 2019 to 2024, with an average reduction of 27% across all cities. Cities under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) alone recorded a 24% decline.
Top Performers
- Varanasi: 76% reduction.
- Moradabad: 58% reduction.
- Kalaburagi: 57.2% reduction.
- Meerut: 57.1% reduction.
- Katni: 56.3% reduction.
- Agra: 54.1% reduction.
- Baghpat: 53.3% reduction.
- Kanpur: 51.2% reduction.
- Jodhpur: 50.5% reduction.
Highly Polluted Cities in 2024
- Delhi: PM2.5 levels at 107 µg/m³.
- Byrnihat, Assam: 127.3 µg/m³.
- Gurugram: 96.7 µg/m³.
- Faridabad: 87.1 µg/m³.
- Sri Ganganagar: 85.5 µg/m³.
- Greater Noida: 83.9 µg/m³.
- Muzaffarnagar: 83.2 µg/m³.
- Durgapur: 82.0 µg/m³.
- Asansol: 80.3 µg/m³.
- Ghaziabad: 79.9 µg/m³.
Challenges and Observations
Despite improvements, several areas continue to experience high pollution levels, particularly in the northern regions including Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh.
National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) Goals
The NCAP was launched in 2019 with an initial target to reduce particulate pollution by 20-30% by 2024, using 2017 as the base year. The target has been revised to a 40% reduction by 2026, with 2019-20 as the reference years. Notably, only PM10 concentration is currently being considered for performance assessments.
