The title of the most polluted city in the world now rests with the capital city of the world’s largest democracy. Therefore, it ought to be said that gone are the days where the most polluted city in the world used to the Chinese capital Beijing.
Recently, a latest piece of Air Quality Report published its findings, basis which it became clear that Delhi is the most polluted city in the world. Truly, it is something that no one ever residing in the national capital of one of the most promising economies of the 21st-century world could ever be proud of.
But central to this piece of breaking news is its source. A real-time air quality ranking report was released by IQ Air Visual. This, basically is a portal whose main job is to track the quality of air pollution and gauge the basic air quality around the world.
While the case of pollution in India’s famous national capital hasn’t been an old story of sorts with every year, the rising threat transforming into some sort of a menace, come the winter season, still it ought to be said that the latest tag associated with Delhi would erase everyone’s chuckles.
NDTV, among the country’s most respected media platforms, explored the story in great detail and happened to share some interesting insights:
The ranking is calculated based on live tracking of the Air Quality Index or AQI of cities across the world. The list, released on their website, shows 50 most polluted countries with Delhi appearing right on top of the list at an AQI of 422 around 9 pm on Wednesday followed by Lahore in Pakistan and Hanoi in Vietnam.
For the longest time now, each year passing, Delhi’s air quality has been dubbed in the ‘hazardous’ category and truth be told, nothing would’ve brought out this truth in a more potent form other than the air quality report.
According to the report, Delhi’s air falls under the “hazardous” category – AQI 301 plus – and describes the air as a “serious risk of respiratory effects. Everyone should avoid outdoor activities”. The website also has a map to track the air quality across the city at any given time, a daily air quality forecast and an hourly forecast.
Even this year, as is often the case around the most important festive period (Diwali), there were concerns regarding the quality of the air. The deadly concoction resulting from the city’s rising pollution contributed largely by means of vehicular emissions, further worsened by the crop burning residue in the neighboring states (such as Punjab and Haryana) were bound to have made everyday life for Delhi’s residents severe.
Furthermore, the air quality in Delhi constantly fluctuated between ‘severe’ and ‘hazardous’ during the Diwali weekend with the common phenomenon of the city blanketed by a layer of smog leaving nothing much to one’s imagination.
But while Delhi now holds the undesirable status of the world’s most polluted cities, one’s got to ask whether there are other Indian cities on this dismal ranking?
There’s some grim news in that regard as the cities of Kolkata (at number 10) with an AQI of 158 as well as Mumbai (at number 28) with an AQI of 98 finding themselves on a list they would much rather have avoided.