India is one of just seven nations that have met the World health Organization's (WHO) strict air quality guidelines for 2024. According to data gathered by the swiss air quality monitoring company IQAir, these nations include Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Estonia, and Iceland.
 
India, meanwhile, is still having problems with air pollution; it ranks sixth in the world in terms of smog levels, behind the Democratic Republic of the Congo, bangladesh, Pakistan, and Chad.

India is home to 13 of the top 20 most polluted cities in the world, with Byrnihat in assam at the top.  Nonetheless, delhi continues to be the world's most polluted capital.
 
According to the research, PM2.5 concentrations in india decreased by 7% in 2024, averaging 50.6 micrograms per cubic meter as opposed to 54.4 micrograms per cubic meter in 2023.  However, india is home to 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world.
 
Delhi's annual average PM2.5 concentration increased from 102.4 micrograms per cubic meter in 2023 to 108.3 micrograms per cubic meter in 2024, indicating a worsening of the city's air pollution.

COUNTRY WITH MOST POLLUTED AIR
With average PM2.5 levels more than 15 times higher than WHO recommendations, chad and bangladesh were named the most polluted nations in 2024.
 
Only 17% of cities worldwide meet the WHO's recommended PM2.5 levels of no more than 5 micrograms per cubic meter.
 
The U.S. State Department's decision to end its air quality monitoring program due to budgetary constraints has created new hurdles for the global fight against air pollution.
 
Africa's capacity to monitor pollution levels has been severely hampered by this action, which has erased more than 17 years' worth of data from the US government's official air quality website, airnow.gov.

By making wildfires more frequent and intense, climate change is making pollution worse and making attempts to improve air quality even more difficult.
 
Experts stress the necessity for alternate monitoring techniques to cover the void left by the US program, warning that the lack of trustworthy data may impede efforts to reduce pollution.
 
The need to address these issues is becoming more pressing since air pollution causes millions of preventable lives every year.
 
 
 
 
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G GOWTHAM

11/03/2025 12:17 PM