A view of Aizawl city at night. Image shared on X by Nazuk Kumar, DC, Aizawl.
India’s top 10 cities with cleanest air: Aizawl No. 1, Karnataka dominates list
Topping the list of top 10 Indian cities with cleanest air is Aizawl in Mizoram, which had a PM2.5 concentration of 11 μg/m3.
India’s top 10 cities with the cleanest air have been revealed with Karnataka dominating the list. (Also read: Delhi, Patna..here is the list of India's most polluted cities)
Respirer Reports, an initiative of Respirer Living Sciences, analysed two sets of air quality data in the cities. The first is the government’s PM2.5 data for the past one year, 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023, to track improvement in air quality over the previous year in the National Capital Region (NCR) and other cities listed in the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
From October 1 2023, a revised version of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), a government air pollution control programme, has come into force in Delhi and 24 nearby districts, collectively known as the National Capital Region (NCR).
Topping the list of top 10 Indian cities with cleanest air is Aizawl in Mizoram, which had a PM2.5 concentration of 11 μg/m3, followed by Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka (17.6 μg/m3) and Mandikhera in Haryana (17.7 μg/m3).
The cleanest air list is dominated by cities in Karnataka with eight out of the 10.
The cities from places four to 10 are all from Karnataka – Chamarajanagar, Madikeri, Vijayapura, Raichur, Shivamogga, Gadag and Mysuru.
“Six places showed an improvement in air quality in 2023 compared to the year before, while the remaining four showed a deterioration, including Aizawl, where levels rose from 8 to 11.1 μg/m3. All were within the CPCB’s ‘good’ limit of 30 μg/m3, but above the WHO safe guideline of 5 μg/m3. Notably, Karnataka dominates this top 10 list of places with India’s cleanest air. However, a wider network of air quality monitors may well throw up many more such places.
The list consisted of all places covered by the government’s network of air quality monitors (CAAQMS), and not just the NCAP cities.
PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) data is a widely used measure for assessing the impacts of air pollution on health. The data is available through NCAP, which aims to reduce PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations in Indian cities by 40 per cent of 2017 levels by 2026.
PM 2.5 refers to air particles that are 2.5 microns in diameter, which is approximately 1/30th the width of a strand of human hair. It consists of fine, toxic particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs, enter the bloodstream and cause heart disease, stroke and other respiratory diseases.
India's top 10 cities with cleanest air
Source: Respirer Reports
Source: Respirer Reports
