Totally, four Indian cities are among the world’s ten most polluted cities, 10 out top 20 are also in India. In WHO’s 2014 report, 13 out of 20 most polluted cities were in India.
Zabol in Iran is the most polluted city in the world according to the database. Gwalior and Allahabad are a close second and third in terms of PM 2.5, which is associated with more serious health impacts than PM 10. Patna and Raipur rank 6th and 7th.
In fact, it now ranks 11th among 3,000 cities in 103 countries in terms of PM 2.5 (fine, particulate pollution) and 25th in terms of PM 10 (coarse pollution particles) levels. This is though a considerable improvement since 2014 when Delhi was ranked the most polluted city in terms of PM 2.5 levels, WHO had monitored only 1600 cities last time. This time 1400 more cities have been included in the database.
WHO used data from various government and research organisations for the database, it’s based on ground measurements of annual mean concentrations of particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5) and “aims at representing an average for the city or town as a whole, rather than for individual stations. Years of measurements range from 2010 to 2015, unless the latest available data was older,” the report said.
“Delhi has improved. Ahmedabad has stabilized and Patna has worsened.
“I am not surprised that four Indian cities are in the top ten list. In 2014, 13 out of top 20 cities were from India,” said Sunil Dahiya, campaigner with Greenpeace India.
