14 Indian Cities Ranked Among The World’s 20 Most Polluted

At least 14 Indian cities have figured in the list of 20 most polluted cities on the planet prepared by the World Health Organisation based on the level of PM 2.5 - particulate matter that reaches deep into the lungs, Times of India reports.

Cities which figure on the list are Delhi, Varanasi, Kanpur, Faridabad, Gaya, Patna, Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Patiala and Jodhpur. Kanpur was placed on the top of the list of 4,300 cities monitored for their air pollution levels. Apart from these, Ali Subah Al Salem of Kuwait, China’s Baoding and Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar also attained global infamy by making it to the list. Interestingly, China’s capital Beijing, infamous for the cover of smog that surrounds it, is not in the list.

According to the report prepared by the WHO, nine out of 10 people on the planet breathe polluted air. Around 7 million die due to direct or indirect effects of breathing polluted air, almost all of them in Asian countries and African countries, the report says. A large number of deaths from heart disease, stroke and lung cancer can be attributed to air pollution, the UN agency’s report notes.

The report also talks about the efforts made by the government to deal with some of these issues. It notes that the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, launched two years ago in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, has provided over 37 million women living below the poverty line with free Liquefied Petroleum Gas connections with a support of Rs. 1,600 to help them to switch to clean sources of energy. The Modi government plans to extend this benefit to 80 million households by 2020.

"Around 3 billion people - more than 40 per cent of the world's population - still do not have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in their homes, the main source of household air pollution," the report reads.

According to WHO Regional Director Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the combined effects of household air pollution and ambient air pollution become increasingly difficult to combat if not dealt with at an early stage.

The WHO report also ranks at least 13 cities in India among the 20 most polluted cities of the world on the basis of PM 10 level in the air.