After Diwali, 93 of the world’s 100 most polluted cities are in India: Worst AQI up to 868; New Delhi is not in Top 10 | Today’s news
India dominated the ranking of the world’s most polluted cities after Diwali celebrations on November 8. A staggering 93 Indian cities featured in the top 100 most polluted places in the world. The data was published by AQI.in on November 9. The ranking was updated at 10:05.
Sri Ganganagar of Rajasthan topped the global list with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 868. The value was classified as hazardous. Punjab’s Faridkot followed with an AQI of 842. Bathinda secured the third position with 797. The numbers pointed to alarming pollution levels in several Indian states.
North India dominates the pollution rankings
Haryana’s Sirsa was ranked fourth globally with an AQI of 612. Bhiwani followed with 548. Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun scored 489 while Hisar scored 485. Amritsar was 8th with an AQI of 451. Pakistan’s Lahore was 9th with an AQI of 446. All these places were classified as dangerous. Other heavily polluted cities included Rohtak, Jaunpur, Patiala and Bulandshahr.
New Delhi was ranked 15th globally with an AQI of 380. Lucknow took the 20th position with 344. Kanpur followed at 22nd with 337. Ghaziabad registered 331 while Greater Noida recorded 327. Noida was ranked 30th with an AQI of 307. All these cities remained in the risk category.
Beyond North India
The ranking also highlighted severe pollution in central, eastern and western India. Pune recorded an AQI of 278. Bhopal registered 284 while Patna stood at 258.
Varanasi recorded 243 while Rajkot registered 242. Nashik reported 219 while Bhubaneswar recorded 200. West Bengal Durgapur registered 197. Howrah recorded 187 while Kolkata registered 183. These figures showed that pollution was not limited to Delhi and neighboring states.
Six locations outside India appeared in the top 100. These included Lahore, Peshawar and Pakistan’s Islamabad. Britons Kidbrooke and Catford also performed. The list was completed by Polish Mielec and Indonesian Sampit.
The charts captured pollution levels at a specific time. They did not determine whether the Diwali celebrations directly caused these readings.
However, India’s overwhelming presence highlighted the country’s serious air quality concerns. The numbers presented an alarming picture of pollution in Indian cities.
