In the domain of environmental discourse, Bihar’s Begusarai has surfaced as the preeminent polluted urban enclave globally, while Delhi has garnered notoriety as the paramount city with compromised air purity, as per a novel publication.
India finds itself situated in the third position concerning air quality degradation out of 134 nations in the year 2023, with an average annual PM2.5 concentration standing at 54.4 micrograms per cubic metre, following Bangladesh (79.9 micrograms per cubic metre) and Pakistan (73.7 micrograms per cubic metre), delineated in the World Air Quality Report 2023 by the Swiss entity IQAir.
In the antecedent year of 2022, India occupied the eighth spot in the roster of most polluted nations, exhibiting an average PM2.5 concentration of 53.3 micrograms per cubic metre. Begusarai rose to eminence as the pinnacle polluted urban conurbation globally, boasting an average PM2.5 concentration of 118.9 micrograms per cubic metre, a stark contrast to its absence in the 2022 rankings.
Delhi witnessed a surge in its PM2.5 levels from 89.1 micrograms per cubic metre in 2022 to 92.7 micrograms per cubic metre in 2023. The capital was consecutively crowned the most polluted capital worldwide commencing from 2018. It is approximated that a staggering 1.36 billion denizens in India are subjected to PM2.5 concentrations surpassing the annual guideline level of 5 micrograms per cubic metre stipulated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Moreover, an estimated 1.33 billion individuals, encompassing 96 per cent of the Indian populace, confront PM2.5 levels exceeding sevenfold the WHO’s annual PM2.5 guideline. This prevailing trend is encapsulated in municipal data, with over 66 per cent of the nation’s urban centres disclosing annual averages transcending 35 micrograms per cubic metre.
IQAir affirms that the dataset underpinning this report was collated from a global network comprising in excess of 30,000 regulatory air quality monitoring stations and low-cost air quality sensors managed by diverse entities including research institutions, governmental agencies, universities, nonprofit organizations, private enterprises, and citizen scientists.
The 2022 rendition of the World Air Quality Report encompassed data from 7,323 locales across 131 nations, regions, and territories. By 2023, these figures have burgeoned to encompass 7,812 sites spanning 134 nations, regions, and territories.
Constituting an estimated one in every nine fatalities globally, air pollution stands as the paramount environmental menace to human well-being. As per the WHO, air pollution is culpable for an estimated seven million premature demises globally each year.
Exposure to PM2.5 air pollution precipitates and exacerbates myriad health afflictions, inclusive of but not confined to asthma, neoplasms, cerebrovascular accidents, and pulmonary disorders. Prolonged exposure to elevated levels of fine particulate matter can impede cognitive development in juveniles, precipitate mental health maladies, and complicate preexisting maladies, including diabetes.