India homes 32 of the 40 most-polluted cities in the world: report

A New report has revealed that 32 of the 40 most-polluted cities in the world last year are in India.

The report, compiled by the Swiss air-monitoring group IQAir, said that New Delhi is the most-polluted capital.

The western Chinese desert city of Hotan, blighted by dust storms, was the world’s most-polluted. Hotan was then followed by 13 Indian cities, topped this year by Ghaziabad on the eastern outskirts of Delhi, in Uttar Pradesh state, reported The Times.

Delhi itself enjoyed a marginal improvement in air quality, slipping from fifth to tenth in the 2020 rankings, but remains unchallenged as the world’s most-polluted capital, it said.

The northern Indian cities, which now endures an annual 'pollution season' in winter when farmers burn their crop stubble to clear the fields, sending a pall of smoke sweeping across the country that mingles with construction dust, industrial emissions and the fumes from millions of cars.

According to The Times, solid fuel burnt in homes for cooking and heat across South Asia are also blamed for chronic pollution levels and the associated impact on human health.

The most dangerous air particles, known as PM2.5, are so microscopic they can penetrate the lungs and enter the blood stream, damaging major organs and even entering the brain.

The pollutants dramatically increase the risk of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. In pregnant women, severe air pollution has been linked to premature births and birth defects in newborns.

Another study published last month by IQAir, in collaboration with Greenpeace and Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, found chronic pollution was behind 160,000 premature deaths in five of the world’s biggest cities.

In Delhi alone about 54,000 premature deaths were blamed on toxic air. At points this winter, the capital’s Air Quality Index (AQI) topped 1,000. The safe limit is 50.

According to experts, prolonged exposure to Delhi’s air is equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day, and cases of respiratory and heart disease surge each winter.

Half of all lung cancer cases in New Delhi are now found in non-smokers, the report added.

Though India’s Supreme Court has sought to ban crop stubble burning, enforcement at local level remains piecemeal. Farmers insist there is no affordable alternative and flouted the ban again this, winter lighting thousands of fires across northern states, The Times reported.

Delhi and much of northern India did witness some of the clearest skies on record last year during the strict lockdown imposed from March to June.

In parts of northern Punjab, locals were able to see the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas, more than 100 miles away, for the first time in a generation.

But, pollution levels soon spiked again as the lockdown was lifted and economic activity resumed, however.

“The year 2020 brought an unexpected dip in air pollution. In 2021, we will likely see an increase in air pollution due to human activity, again. We hope this report will highlight that urgent action is both possible and necessary to combat air pollution, which remains the world’s greatest environmental health threat,” said Frank Hammes, IQAir’s chief executive.