North India Pollution Alert: Along with Delhi, many cities of Haryana and UP also became hot spots of air pollution

This year, in the months of March, April and May, not only did the heat break the record, but the air pollution also remained at high level. PM 2.5 levels remained high across North India. Bhiwadi, Manesar, Ghaziabad, Delhi and Noida hot spots are being built in NCR. This finding has come out in an analysis by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE).

This analysis was done over the time period from March 1 to May 31. For this, data was collected from 356 stations under Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System in 174 cities of 26 states and union territories through the online portal of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

North India is the most polluted, Delhi-NCR is the hotspot of pollution in summer. The summer average level of PM 2.5 in northern India is 71 micrograms per square metre, the highest among all regions. East India was the second worst-hit region with a summer average of 69 micrograms per square metre. West India (54 micrograms per cubic metre) and central India (46 micrograms per cubic metre) also recorded higher than normal summer levels of 40 micrograms per square metre. Northeast and South India remained clean as compared to other regions, where PM 2.5 levels were recorded at 35 and 31 micrograms per square metre, respectively. Delhi NCR was found to be the most polluted sub-region in North India. The summer average of PM 2.5 was very high in Delhi-NCR cities, with Bhiwadi recording the highest at 134 micrograms per square metre.

Manesar (119 micrograms per cubic metre), Ghaziabad (101 micrograms per cubic metre), Delhi (97 micrograms per cubic metre), Gurugram (94 micrograms per cubic metre) and Noida (80 micrograms per cubic metre) were no less polluted. The average level of PM 2.5 in the NCR region is almost three times the average of cities in southern India. North India has registered a 23 per cent increase in the seasonal PM 2.5 level as compared to the previous summer. NCR was the worst-performing sub-region in northern India with a 25.8 per cent increase in seasonal PM 2.5 levels. 12 cities of Delhi-NCR are among the top 20 cities with highest pollution levels this summer.

19 cities in the region show an increasing trend, i.e. both summer average and peak increase compared to their previous summer. Hapur in Uttar Pradesh saw an astonishing 210 percent increase in the summer average and an average increase of 265 percent. In Haryana, Kaithal recorded an increase of 123 percent in the summer average and 96 percent in the peak.