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Business News/ News / India/  These 10 cities in India have the worst air to breathe
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These 10 cities in India have the worst air to breathe

An AQI of above 400 is considered ‘severe’ and can affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing illnesses

Heavy smog has been deteriorating the city’s air quality, as seen here early morning at Majlis Park in New Delhi, India. (HT)Premium
Heavy smog has been deteriorating the city’s air quality, as seen here early morning at Majlis Park in New Delhi, India. (HT)

Union Minister and BJP leader Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday attacked Aam Aadmi Party over Punjab farm fires and said that as of today, a state run by the AAP government has seen over 19 per cent rise in farm fires over 2021. Blaming AAP for rising pollution in the national capital, he said, "there is no doubt over who has turned Delhi into a gas chamber."

Meanwhile, Delhi and its adjoining areas recorded another day of poor air quality as the Air Quality Index(AQI) in most of the areas dropped to a 'severe' category. With poor air quality people with asthma find it hard to breath as it impacts there health.

Delhi, along with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are currently having the most polluted cities in India. One of the major reasons on why the air of these cities are so highly polluted is being attributed to stuuble burning by the farmers of Punjab and the current weather conditions which does not help in speedy dispersal of the pollutants from these areas.

Top 10 polluted cities in India: Full list

City       AQI

Noida     436

Bhiwani  407

Panipat    405

Ghaziabad 404

Hapur         388

Faridabad 371

New-Delhi 369

Gurgaon 368

Sonipat 361

Meerut 336

While the forecasters on Wednesday predicted the air quality was likely to improve on the back of stronger winds, the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi stood at 426 at 9.10 am.

An AQI of above 400 is considered “severe" and can affect healthy people and seriously impact those with existing illnesses.

Anand Vihar and Jahangirpuri were the most polluted places in the capital with AQI at 460.

The areas that recorded “Severe" AQI are Alipur (439), Ashok Vihar (444), Bawana (456), Burari (443), Mathura Road (412), DTU (436), Dwarka (408), ITO (435), Mundka (438), Narela (447), Nehru Nagar (433), Patparganj (441), Rohini (453), Sonia Vihar (444), Vivek Vihar (444) and Wazirpur (444).

The AQI continued to remain in the ‘very poor’ category in Ghaziabad (391), Noida (388), Greater Noida (390), Gurugram (391) and Faridabad (347), the CPCB data stated.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".

This comes a day after Punjab reported the highest number of farm fires. According to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Punjab reported 3,634 farm fires on Wednesday, the highest this year so far.

SAFAR, a forecasting agency under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, had earlier said stubble burning accounted for 32 per cent of the PM2.5 pollution in the capital on Wednesday.

Transport-level winds blow in the lowest two layers of the atmosphere -- the troposphere and stratosphere -- and carry smoke from farm fires to the national capital region.

PM2.5 are lung-damaging fine particles that are 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter and can travel deep into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs and entering the bloodstream.

*with inputs from agencies 

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Published: 03 Nov 2022, 11:34 AM IST
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