Delhi is no longer the most polluted city in the world, reveals the latest report by the World Health Organisation. But the six of the ten most polluted cities in the world are in India.
In the world the six Indian cities which rank most polluted cities are – Gwalior, Allahabad, Patna, Raipur, Ludhiana, and Delhi.
The dirtiest air was recorded at Zabol in Iran, which suffers from months of dust storms in the summer, and which clocked a so-called PM2.5 measure of 217. The next four were all Indian: Gwalior, Allahabad, Patna and Raipur, Reuters reported quoting the WHO findings.
New Delhi was ranked worst in 2014 with a PM2.5 reading of 153. It has since tried various measures to tackle its toxic air by limiting the use of private cars on the road for short periods.
Delhi’s annual mean is about three times the Indian safe standard and 12 times the WHO standard of 10 micrograms per cubic metres.
It has since tried to tackle its toxic air by limiting the use of private cars on the road for short periods.
Punjab’s Ludhiana has been ranked 10th in the list.
The WHO data, a survey of 3,000 urban areas, shows only 2 percent of cities in poorer countries have air quality that meets WHO standards, while 44 percent of richer cities do.
The WHO database says, air pollution is currently the greatest environmental risk to public health and causes about 3 million premature deaths globally every year.
The report says annually, deaths of 1.7 million children (under the age of 5) and 4.9 million adults (between ages 50 to 75) could be prevented through better environmental management.
List of 10 most polluted cities in world are:
1) Zabol, Iran
2) Gwalior, India
3) Allahabad, India
4) Patna, India
5) Raipur, India
6) Bamenda, Cameroon
7) Xingtai, China
8) Baoding, China
9) Delhi, India
10)Ludhiana, India