The Delhi government is working on various schemes to curb pollution and the results will be visible soon, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Tuesday, following the publication of a report that identified the city as the capital with the poorest air quality.
With an average annual PM2.5 concentration of 54.4 micrograms per cubic metre, India had the third worst air quality out of 134 countries in 2023 after Bangladesh (79.9 micrograms per cubic metre) and Pakistan (73.7 micrograms per cubic metre), according to the World Air Quality Report – 2023 by Swiss organisation IQAir.
In 2022, India was ranked as the eighth-most polluted country with an average PM2.5 concentration of 53.3 micrograms per cubic metre.
“I have not seen the details of the report and I do not know what time period it has covered. Since 2014, PM10 and PM2.5 levels have been analysed and they have shown a constant decline. In 2022, the average PM10 was 223 and it declined to 219 in 2023. The PM2.5 level increased from 103 in 2022 to 106 in 2023,” Rai said.
“We are working on various schemes and the results will be seen,” he added.
Delhi’s PM2.5 level worsened from 89.1 micrograms per cubic metre in 2022 to 92.7 micrograms per cubic metre in 2023, according to the report.
The national capital has been ranked the most polluted capital city in the world four times on the trot, starting 2018.
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