New Delhi, A comprehensive new study by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) has laid bare the scale of India’s persistent air pollution crisis, revealing that nearly 60 per cent of the country’s districts record annual average PM2.5 concentrations above the national safe limit of 40 µg/m³.
Of the 749 districts analysed, 447 exceeded India’s own standard, with Delhi emerging as the most polluted state or union territory by a considerable margin. The capital’s annual average PM2.5 concentration reached 101 µg/m³—more than 2.5 times the national benchmark and 20 times the World Health Organization’s guideline of 5 µg/m³.
Chandigarh ranked second with 70 µg/m³, followed by Haryana (63 µg/m³), Tripura (62 µg/m³) and Assam (60 µg/m³). Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab, Meghalaya and Nagaland completed the top ten most polluted states and union territories.
The report underscores that toxic air is no longer a seasonal or metropolitan phenomenon confined to the winter smog over northern India. Pollution levels remained above national standards in 82 per cent of districts during winter, 75 per cent in the post-monsoon period, 54 per cent in summer and even 10 per cent during the monsoon—demonstrating a year-round, nationwide public health challenge.
Among larger states, Bihar recorded unsafe air in 37 of its 38 districts, West Bengal in 22 of 23, and Gujarat in 32 of 33. In several smaller jurisdictions—including Delhi, Assam, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura and Jammu & Kashmir—every monitored district breached the limit.
CREA analyst Manoj Kumar stressed the need for a fundamental policy shift: “India’s air-quality challenge can no longer be treated as an urban haze or a winter-only problem. It is a perennial, pan-India crisis that demands district- and region-specific interventions rather than one-size-fits-all measures.”
The findings add urgency to calls for stronger enforcement of emissions controls across transport, industry, power generation and agricultural burning, as well as accelerated investment in monitoring infrastructure in under-served regions. With air pollution already linked to an estimated 1.7 million premature deaths in India in 2022 according to a separate Lancet study, the CREA report serves as a stark reminder that the human and economic costs of inaction continue to mount.
