India has 15 out of world's 20 most polluted cities

India has once again performed poorly in the World Air Quality Report. According to the Swiss air quality technology company IQAir, 15 Indian cities are among the top 20 most polluted cities in the world. Bhiwadi in Rajasthan was ranked third, while Delhi was ranked fourth. The city of Lahore in Pakistan topped the list, followed by Hotan, China, at number two.

• The central government has frequently questioned international organizations' rating, which are allegedly derived primarily from satellite data and supplementary information without adequate authentication at ground level.
• Air quality reports generally refer to smoke from stubble burning after rice harvesting, a controversial topic as the administration is reluctant to take action against farmers.
• Reportedly, the smoke is responsible for up to 45% of Delhi's pollution.

The list shows the world's most polluted cities dominated by Indian cities concentrated around Delhi. While Delhi's air pollution is ranked fourth, Bhiwadi, Rajasthan is at number three on the list, Patna, Bihar at number ten, and Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh at number eleven. Dharuhera, Chapra, Muzaffarnagar, Faisalabad, Greater Noida, Bahadurgarh, Faridabad and Muzzafarpur were also added to the list.

According to reports, most of these cities don't conform to the World Health Organization's (WHO) threshold of five micrograms per cubic meter for air pollution levels. The average concentration is 58.1 micrograms per cubic meter, 10 times the WHO's air quality recommendations. The situation in North India is significantly worse, with yearly average PM2.5 levels of 96.4 micrograms per cubic meter.

The study used data from government and private stations, as well as data collected by institutions. The report was derived from statistics on PM2.5 air quality from 7,323 cities in 131 nations, regions, and territories, according to IQAir.