139 polluted cities not on clean air plan: report

139 polluted cities not on clean air plan: report

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According to a report titled Airpocalypse III, by Greenpeace, there are 139 Indian cities that breach air pollution standards but are not included in the Centre’s National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

Important facts

1. The exclusion of cities is due to the fact that the Indian government’s list of 102 polluted cities relied on average pollution data until 2015, whereas Airpocalypse III used data updated up to 2017.
2.    Of the 139 cities that have not been included in the non-attainment list, there are several cities that have a population of more than 1 million, and PM levels (recorded in 2017) above National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). These include Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jabalpur, Chennai, Madurai, Meerut, Pimpri-Chindwar, Thane, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara and Howrah.

About NCAP:

1.   NCAP is an initiative which aims at 20%–30% reduction of PM₅ and PM₁₀ concentration by 2024 in 102 non- attainment cities.

• Note: A non-attainment city is considered to have air quality worse than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Status of air pollution in Indian cities:

1. In 2018, fourteen Indian cities were among world’s 20 most polluted, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data.
2.   A study in the journal Lancet ranked India as No.1 on premature mortality and deaths from air pollution.