The latest edition of the World Air Quality report released by Swiss Air Technology major IQAir has sobering news for India. The country has 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world. The study is a reminder that though governments have taken significant steps to clean air — at times after being nudged by courts — the interventions have not led to appreciable improvements. The country is ranked the fifth-most polluted country, after Chad, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The IQAir list comprises not just urban centres whose trysts with toxic air are well known — Delhi and its adjoining areas for example — it also features small towns such as Byrnihat in Assam and Mullanpur in Punjab. This is not a new finding. In recent years, towns such as Bhiwadi in Rajasthan and Begusarai in Bihar have topped the IQAir list. But the country’s pollution challenge continues to be framed largely in terms of a crisis in big city governance.
The IQAir report underlines that pollution affects even the developed economies. However, the least developed and emerging economies are the most affected. India’s neighbours, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, are among the poor performers. The problem’s transboundary nature has been evident for long. In recent times, experts have been advocating interventions in multiple airsheds — contiguous regions — whose geography makes it difficult for them to disperse pollutants. However, cooperation between the South Asian neighbours has been underwhelming. The IQAir report is another reminder that such intransigence doesn’t work.
