New Delhi: Since Diwali, the air quality in the national capital remained in a bad condition. The condition will deteriorate further while the visibility will also remain poor for the next three days owing to fog and smog, said Senior Scientist of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Apart from Delhi, two other cities of India have also registered poor air quality as researched by IQAir, a Switzerland-based climate group.
The climate group which is also a technology partner of the United Nations Environmental Program(UNEP) has registered Kolkata and Mumbai among the top ten most polluted cities of the world.
According to IQAir, Delhi leads the list with an Air Quality Indicator (AQI) of 460 while Mumbai is listed in the fourth position and Kolkata in the sixth. The other cities in the world recording the worst AQI are Pakistan’s Lahore, China’s Chengdu, Bangladesh’s Dhaka among others.
Here’s the list of the top 10 worst AQI cities in the world:
City, Country, AQI
- Delhi, India, 460
- Lahore, Pakistan, 328
- Chengdu, China, 176
- Mumbai, India, 169
- Karachi, Pakistan, 165
- Kolkata, India, 16
- Sofia, Bulgaria, 164
- Dhaka, Bangladesh, 160
- Belgrade, Serbia, 159
- Jakarta, Indonesia, 158
According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) under the Ministry of Earth Science also recorded that air quality in Delhi is in a ‘very poor state with an AQI of 390.
Delhi Pollution Control Committee’s analysis states that inhabitants of Delhi breathe the most polluted air from November 1 to November 15 every year. This year too, the city recorded terrible air quality on six of the last eight days after Diwali.
