Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai was the only city among the ten ‘non-attainment cities’ in the country that recorded particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and PM10 levels within safe limits, as prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), during the summer months.
This was part of an analysis of pollution data collected by the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) tracker from ten cities across the country— Agra, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Jodhpur, Mumbai, Lucknow and Patna— between March and June.
The analysis showed that all other cities in the study recorded levels higher than permissible limits, and only Kolkata and Bengaluru joined Chennai in May. Chennai was also the only city that had PM10 levels within safe limits during April. The cities were chosen because they were classified as non-attainment cities, whose air did not meet the national ambient air quality standards of 2011 to 2015. The NCAP was launched for such cities, seeking to bring a 20% to 30% reduction in levels of PM2.5 and PM10 particles by 2024.
