World Air Quality report crowns this city as the most polluted one in Maharashtra

In a recent report by the World Air Quality Report 2019, Navi Mumbai has been named as the place with most toxic air in Maharashtra and it has been ranked 51st most polluted city in the world. On the other hand, Nagpur has been deemed as the state's second most polluted city.

The report has been drafted on the basis of the latest data from government and private continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations. The data was compiled by IQAir Air Visual, that is a global air quality monitoring platform. The platform revealed a changing state of particulate matter 2.5 around the world in the last year.

Globally, India has been ranked as the fifth most polluted nation with an annual PM 2.5 concentration of 58.1 micrograms per cubic meter (mpcm). PM 2.5 is a deadly pollutant that measures up to 2.5 microns. Due to its microscopic size, the particle is said to enter via the respiratory system in the bloodstream and cause severe respiratory problems.

Among the 11 cities from Maharashtra that have been listed under polluted cities, annual PM 2.5 levels of Navi Mumbai were exceptionally high at 61.6 pm. This is 500 per cent more than the safety limit of concentration set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) at 10 mpcm.

Other than that, various other cities from the state including Mumbai, Aurangabad, Nashik, Solapur, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Chandrapur, Kupti, Kumbhori, have recorded high PM 2.5 levels.

Earlier, the authorities from SAFAR had also conducted a study in areas like Navi Mumbai (347 AQI) and Bandra-Kurla Complex (322 AQI), while Bhandup recorded the lowest AQI of them all at 148. Further, the surveys found that nearly five places have an AQI rating of “very poor”. 

The rise in pollution is not new to the city. Last month, Bandra saw the highest AQI, officially breaching the 500-mark, which is considered hazardous for humans.