Three Indian cities, including Delhi among world’s 10 most polluted cities; check list here

Smoke emerged from farm fires that come from nearby states along with Delhi’s local pollution due to vehicle emissions and Diwali have triggered concern of a health emergency in the national capital. Due to these factors, the visibility in New Delhi will remain poor for the next three days, informed a Senior Scientist of the Indian Meteorological Department {IMD}.

Meanwhile, IQAir, a Switzerland-based climate group has registered three cities from India on the list of ten cities with the worst air quality. IQAir which is also a technology partner of the United Nations Environmental Program {UNEP} mentioned Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi among the top ten most polluted cities of the world.

As per the list, the national capital tops the chart with an average AQI of 556 while Kolkata ranks fourth and Mumbai comes sixth on the list set by the IQAir service. However, other popular cities also include Chengdu, in China, Lahore, in Pakistan and Krakow in Poland.

Below are the ten cities with the worst air quality according to IQAir:

1. Delhi, India with AQI: 556

2. Lahore, Pakistan with AQI: 354

3. Sofia, Bulgaria with AQI: 178

4. Kolkata, India with AQI: 177

5. Zagreb, Croatia with AQI: 173

6. Mumbai, India with AQI: 169

7. Belgrade, Serbia with AQI: 165

8. Chengdu, China with AQI: 165

9. Skopje, North Macedonia with AQI: 164

10. Krakow, Poland with AQI: 160

Additionally, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s {IITM} decision support system {DSS} has asserted that Delhi also receives pollutants in the air from other cities including Gurugram, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Jhajjar, and Sonepat.

Also, SAFAR, the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality stated that the stubble fires coming from farms have reported at least 35 percent of pollutants in the air yesterday, 12 November.