Meghalaya’s Byrnihat most polluted ‘city’ in India

Subject: Environment

Section: Pollution

Context:

In February, Byrnihat, an industrial town on the Meghalaya-Assam border, was identified as India’s most polluted city according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

Details of the report findings:

This report, highlighting the issue of air pollution in urban centres of the Northeast—a region typically perceived as the greenest part of India—revealed Byrnihat’s PM2.5 levels to be significantly high, with a monthly average concentration of 183 µg/m^3.
This level not only surpassed that of Bihar’s Araria, the second-most polluted city, by approximately 60 µg/m^3 but was also nearly 1.8 times higher than the PM2.5 concentration in Delhi, ranked as the 14th most polluted city for the same month.
The findings also placed other northeastern urban centers—Nalbari (5th), Agartala (12th), Guwahati (19th), and Nagaon (28th)—among the top 30 most polluted cities in India for February.
This suggests a concerning trend of escalating pollution levels across the region. Furthermore, out of 11 cities in the northeastern states with continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations, six exceeded the daily National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board for PM2.5 levels, indicating a pressing environmental challenge in these areas.

Cleanest cities:

Conversely, cities like Sivasagar, Silchar, Aizawl, and Imphal in the northeast recorded PM2.5 concentrations below the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), marking them as the cleanest in the region.
However, none of these cities met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) safe guideline concentrations for PM2.5.
This situation underscores the urgent need for enhanced air quality monitoring and management, especially given the environmental degradation attributed to unregulated industrial activities, insufficient public transportation, and poor construction practices among other factors.
The report also noted an overall improvement in air quality across India in February, with an increase in cities classified under the ‘good’ and ‘satisfactory’ categories and a decrease in those categorized as ‘moderate,’ ‘poor,’ and ‘very poor.’
This improvement was attributed to better wind speeds, rising temperatures, and possibly reduced emissions, reflecting a positive trend in efforts to tackle air pollution.

Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA):

CREA is an independent research organisation focused on revealing the trends, causes, and health impacts, as well as the solutions to air pollution.
They use scientific data, research and evidence to support the efforts of governments, companies and campaigning organisations worldwide in their efforts to move towards clean energy and clean air. They believe that effective research and communication are the key to successful policies, investment decisions and advocacy efforts.
Registered as a nonprofit in Finland, with staff across Asia and Europe.
Their work is funded through philanthropic grants and revenue from commissioned research.

Source: TH