India's toxic air gets worse, pollution in 132 cities below standards

 India is failing in efforts to improve its toxic air quality, with the number of smog-plagued cities increasing since the launch of a national program to tackle the issue

India is failing in efforts to improve its toxic air quality, with the number of smog-plagued cities increasing since the launch of a national program to tackle the issue. A total of 132 cities now have pollution levels deemed below national standards, from 102 cities when the National Clean Air Programme began in 2019, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

Limited funding, the lack of tighter emissions standards for industries including metal smelters to oil refineries and slow progress on adding monitoring stations are all factors hampering work to improve air quality, CREA said. India’s government “should start acting on a war scale,” to hit targets to curb pollution, authors Shivansh Ghildiyal and Sunil Dahiya said in the report. “Stringent actions should be implemented across sectors to reduce emission loads.”

More than 90% of India’s population lives in areas where air quality is below World Health Organization standards, with coal-fired power plants, factories and vehicles among the major sources of pollution. The problem worsens during winter due to the burning of crop stubble by farmers, typically blanketing northern cities, including the capital New Delhi, in a choking smog.