Delhi ranked as the most polluted capital city globally
The report was prepared by the Swiss organization IQAir, in the form of the ‘World Air Quality Report, 2020’, which has been released globally. The report, however, shows that Delhi’s air quality improved by approximately 15% from 2019 to 2020. It said that despite the improvement, Delhi ranked as the 10th most polluted city and the top polluted capital city in the world.
Besides Delhi, the 21 other Indian cities among the 30 most polluted cities in the world are Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Agra and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Bhiwari in Rajasthan, Faridabad, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bandhwari, Gurugram, Yamuna Nagar, Rohtak and Dharuhera in Haryana, and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.
As per the report, the top most polluted city in Xinjiang in China followed by nine Indian cities. Ghaziabad is the second most polluted city in the world followed by Bulandshahar, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow, and Bhiwani.
The global cities ranking report is based on PM2.5 data from 106 countries, which is measured by ground-based monitoring stations, most of which are operated by government agencies.