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Sixteen Indian cities, despite receiving close to Rs 1,000 crore collectively over the last eight years to counter air pollution, have recently been listed within 50 most polluted cities of the world. It is a finding that has put the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) performance under microscope.
Environmentalists claim that the efficacy of the costliest air pollution control programme ever taken up in India, and one of the biggest globally, has come under further scrutiny as the programme has been found to be non-existent within 19 Indian cities listed in the ‘most polluted’ top 50 list.
According to the PRANA portal, which outlines NCAP performance, Rs 11,541 crore have been released till March 14 to the non-attainment cities that have been found to be polluted over a long period of time.
The study was carried out by IQAIR, a Swiss air quality technology company based on PM 2.5 data collected from more than 40,000 air quality monitoring stations across 8,954 locations in 138 countries, territories, and regions. Incidentally, PM 2.5 is one of the most potent air pollutants that can reach the deep crevices of lungs and trigger a bevy of respiratory diseases, including fatal ones.
A closer analysis of the result also shows that 10 of the 35 Indian cities within the most polluted 50 global ones are both NCAP as well as Smart cities. It is a finding that raises questions about the urban developmental paradigm pursued in the country.
The NCAP was launched in India in 2019. It initially aimed to significantly enhance the air quality in India by 2024 by reducing PM concentration by 20-30 per cent, compared to 2017 levels. Subsequently in 2022, the timeline got extended till 2026, with the reduction target pushed up to 40 per cent. Clearly, most Indian cities are still far off it.
‘PM 2.5 barely declined’
“India saw a 7% decline in PM2.5 concentrations in 2024, averaging 50.6 μg/m³ compared to 54.4 μg/m³ in 2023; yet six of the world’s ten most polluted cities are in India … India ranked as the world’s fifth most polluted country, down from third the previous year but air pollution remains a significant health burden in India, reducing life expectancy by an estimated 5.2 years,” said Armen Araradian of IQAir to this correspondent on March 14, during an exclusive interview on the report.
“Severe pollution episodes persisted in 2024, particularly in northern states. January air quality was especially poor in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. The city of Baddi, in southwestern Himachal Pradesh, saw a January monthly PM2.5 average of 165 μg/m³. Air quality deteriorated sharply in Manipur in October, while November saw extreme pollution levels in Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh with crop stubble burning remaining a major contributor to PM2.5 levels, accounting for 60% of pollution during peak periods. Overall, 35% of Indian cities reported annual PM2.5 averages exceeding ten times the WHO guideline,” he further explained.
The official pointed out that “despite governmental measures, such as NCAP aiming to reduce pollution levels, challenges persist due to inconsistent policy implementation and inadequate infrastructure” and reminded how the Supreme Court, during last October, affirmed that breathing clean, pollution-free air is a fundamental right.
Funds flow; so, does foul air
An analysis shows that 16 NCAP Indian cities within the top 50 most polluted global ones — India, overall, has 35 cities in the list — have been allotted around Rs 960 crore for air pollution control including the pollution penalty amount generated in Delhi. Of this, they spent about Rs 587 crore, nearly 61 per cent.
The most polluted global city of Byrnihat in Meghalaya, with a PM 2.5 value of 128 micrograms in 2024 that was three times over the national limit and 25 times above the WHO recommended guideline, could only spend 54 per cent of its assigned Rs 8 crore so far, while Delhi spent only 32 per cent of its approved budget.
Some cities have faltered despite spending huge sums to combat air pollution.
Patna and Chandigarh, both NCAP and Smart cities, are prime examples. While Patna spent Rs 233 crore for air pollution control under NCAP since 2017-18, 78 per cent of its allotted 299 crore; Chandigarh spent around Rs 30 crore, around 93 per cent of the released amount of Rs 33 crore, during the period.
However, both recorded worsening air pollution over the period. Patna’s PM 10 value, a key pollutant considered for assessing air pollution status under NCAP, rose 3 per cent in 2023-24 compared to 2017-18; while the same rose 2 per cent in Chandigarh during the period.
Incidentally, Angul in Odisha, an NCAP city, recorded the highest increase in PM 10 level within the Indian cities in the top 50 list — a whopping 72 per cent. Overall, the NCAP cities in the global top 50 list have been found to reduce 16 per cent of their PM 10 pollution in the last 7 years.
‘NCAP needs urgent revision and restructuring’
Air pollution experts admit that everything is not right with NCAP, and maybe, NCAP 2.0 needs to be pursued.
“It is worrisome that several cities under the NCAP for over five years continue to feature in the global top 50 most polluted cities; equally concerning is the fact that some Indian cities not yet covered under NCAP also rank among the world’s 50 most polluted,” observed Sunil Dahiya, an air pollution expert and founder of Envirocatalysts.
Dahiya called for “an urgent revision of NCAP to include more cities and regions, with a systematic, time-bound approach to reducing emissions”.
“If pollution levels are rising in some of the NCAP cities, it means that the spending of the clean air funds is not well aligned with the priority measures that need to be implemented at a scale. If non-NCAP cities are also polluted, that signals proliferation of newer pollution hotspots due to lack of regional or airshed based approach to prevent the spread of pollution,” pointed out Anumita Roychoudhury, an air pollution expert and executive director of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based think tank.
“It is worrying that despite the efforts to implement clean air action plans in NCAP cities for five years, and, despite the massive spending on urban infrastructure under the smart cities programme, the pollution levels have remained elevated or are rising. This requires serious rethink and restructuring of the programmes to ensure that the funding is repurposed from inconsequential measures to more systemic solutions to get clean air,” added Roychoudhury.
Sometime back, a CSE study showed that nearly two-thirds of the allotted money had been used for dust control in the country.
Abhijit Chatterjee, an advisor to NCAP and a scientist with Bose Institute, pointed out that as the focus of NCAP is to reduce PM10, controlling the construction and demolition dust as well as road dust have been prioritised. “While focusing on larger dust emissions, ultrafine particles emitted from biomass and solid waste burning remained out of surveillance. Therefore, PM2.5 emissions are going beyond control,” explained the expert.
“Air pollution is not restricted to non-attainment cities. Satellite-derived information suggests that the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain is non-attainment. Data also suggest that a large contribution of pollution in non-attainment cities comes from outside the city jurisdiction. Therefore, unless sector-specific mitigation measures are implemented with strict compliance and accountability in regional airsheds, the battle against air pollution cannot be won,” observed Sagnik Dey, a scientist with the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT Delhi.
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