Hyderabad: 

Mumbai, Chennai, and Bengaluru saw the fastest worsening of localised pollution levels in winter. As per the report, the megacities of the west and south may have comparatively lower citywide averages compared to Delhi and Kolkata, but in each city, pollution build-up at different locations is substantial, being as much as 60 per cent higher than respective citywide averages.

This analysis compares PM2.5 concentrations during winter with the help of data from 115 air quality monitoring stations across six cities. Since these cities have more than one ambient air quality monitoring station, the analysis used city-wide averages.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has released six individual reports analysing the winter air pollution trends (2024-2025) in six megacities of India, including Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai. Among these, Delhi remains the worst as the city saw the highest concentration of pollution during winter. While Kolkata's long-term seasonal PM2.5 trend was lower, it recorded the same number of 'poor' air quality days as Delhi.

Days of 'poor' air quality:

According to CSE, Delhi remains the most polluted megacity, registering eight days of ‘severe+’ AQI, 12 days of ‘severe’ AQI, 68 days of ‘very poor’ AQI, 15 days of 'poor' AQI, and no ‘good’ AQI days this winter (2024-25). Kolkata witnessed only one day of 'very poor' AQI as well as 15 days of ‘poor’ AQI, the same as Delhi. Among the megacities, Chennai had only one day of ‘poor’ AQI, while Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad recorded zero ‘poor’ AQI days.

In terms of cleaner air, Mumbai had only 19 days of ‘good’ AQI, followed by Kolkata with just 11, the lowest among megacities (excluding Delhi). In contrast, Hyderabad (21 days), Bengaluru (44 days) and Chennai (55 days) recorded a higher number of ‘good’ AQI days.

The CSE report suggests that the National Clean Air Programme must ensure that all cities in different climatic zones take appropriate action to prevent winter spikes and meet clean air standards. Additionally, cities with very high pollution levels need to take more stringent and advanced action to counter the effect of meteorology. Action on vehicles, industry, power plants, waste burning, construction and use of solid fuels in households needs to be upscaled with speed, the report suggested.

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