Gurgaon: Five Haryana cities featured among India’s 10 most polluted in July. The city stood at the fifth spot. Bihar accounted for three cities and Punjab and UP for one each.Panipat, Sonipat, Charkhi Dadri and Ballabgarh — along with the city — recorded average PM2.5 concentrations above India’s 24-hour national ambient air quality standard of 60 µg/m³ despite the monsoon month, according to an analysis by Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).The monthly analysis, based on data downloaded from Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) central control room for Air Quality Management dashboard, found that the city recorded a monthly average PM2.5 concentration of 76 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³). Panipat ranked sixth at 75 µg/m³, followed by Sonipat at 68 µg/m³, Charkhi Dadri at 67 µg/m³ and Ballabgarh at 66 µg/m³.“The persistence of elevated PM2.5 levels during the monsoon also points to the role of underlying emissions, rather than weather alone, in determining air quality,” analyst Manoj Kumar said.The city’s pollution was persistent through the month rather than limited to isolated spikes. The city appeared among India’s 10 most polluted cities on 18 days in July, while its PM2.5-based air quality was in the moderate category on 12 days, poor on seven days and very poor on three days. It recorded nine satisfactory days and no good days during the month.Khora, a town in UP’s Ghaziabad district, ranked fourth nationally with a monthly average of 77 µg/m³. With Khora included, six cities and towns from NCR figured in the national top 10. The remaining four were Aurangabad, Manguraha and Siwan in Bihar and Rupnagar in Punjab.The broader Haryana picture was also poor. Of the state’s 25 monitored cities, 10 recorded monthly average PM2.5 concentrations above 60 µg/m³, the highest number among all states. Bihar was second, with four of its 21 monitored cities recording averages above the national standard.CREA’s categorisation showed one Haryana city in the good category, with a monthly average PM2.5 concentration of 0-30 µg/m³. Fourteen cities were in the satisfactory category, with concentrations of 31-60 µg/m³, while 10 were in the moderate category of 61-90 µg/m³.The daily rankings showed that the problem extended beyond the five Haryana cities that made the monthly top 10. Panipat appeared in the daily top 10 on 16 days, Ballabgarh on 15, Sonipat on 14 and Charkhi Dadri on 12 days. Narnaul appeared on 13 days, Manesar on 11, while Bahadurgarh, Karnal and Panchgaon featured on 10 days each.Khora appeared in the daily top 10 on 22 days, the highest frequency among the cities tracked by CREA, followed by Aurangabad on 20 days and Gurgaon on 18. A total of 51 cities featured in the daily top 10 at least once during July.The contrast was particularly marked with Delhi. The capital recorded a monthly average PM2.5 concentration of 39 µg/m³ in July, below the 60 µg/m³ national 24-hour standard. Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai also recorded monthly averages below the standard, at 24, 23, 20 and 15 µg/m³, respectively.Among million-plus cities in Indo-Gangetic Plain covered in CREA’s separate comparison, Faridabad recorded the highest July monthly average at 54 µg/m³, followed by Amritsar at 46, Meerut at 42, Delhi at 39, Ghaziabad at 37 and Agra at 36 µg/m³.The findings therefore show a sharp divergence within NCR, with Delhi’s monthly average remaining below the national standard while several neighbouring Haryana cities recorded substantially higher concentrations.The pattern also extended beyond the region’s largest urban centres, with smaller cities such as Charkhi Dadri and Ballabgarh featuring among the country’s 10 most polluted in July.
