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India’s aerial prime deteriorated sharply successful October 2025, with the Indo-Gangetic Plain, peculiarly the National Capital Region (NCR), emerging arsenic the astir polluted portion successful the country. Dharuhera successful Haryana topped the database with a PM2.5 monthly mean of 123 µg/m³, breaching the nationalist harmless bounds connected 77% of monitored days and signaling 9 ‘Very Poor’ and 2 ‘Severe’ aerial prime days, according to the Finland-based non-profit Centre for Research connected Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
Delhi, ranked sixth, saw its PM2.5 levels triple from 36 µg/m³ successful September to 107 µg/m³ successful October, contempt stubble burning contributing little than 6% to its contamination load.
“Winter and festive periods don’t make India’s contamination problem, they exposure it. These seasonal spikes simply amplify baseline contamination levels that stay dangerously precocious passim the year. This predictable surge is substantially preventable if we prioritize sector-specific emanation cuts with wide accountability mechanisms. Instead, argumentation responses stay reactive and seasonal, failing to code the year-round sources driving this crisis,” Manoj Kumar, expert astatine CREA, said.
Mumbai, successful contrast, recorded a citywide mean PM2.5 level of 40 µg/m³, placing it successful the ‘Satisfactory’ class nether India’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). However, the city’s aerial prime varied widely, with Bandra Kurla Complex (IIT Bombay station) peaking astatine 71 µg/m³, followed by Navy Nagar-Colaba astatine 56 µg/m³, and Mulund West astatine 51 µg/m³, portion Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and Kandivali West remained beneath 32 µg/m³.
Nationally, retired of 249 cities with capable data, 212 remained wrong the NAAQS bounds of 60 µg/m³, but lone six cities met the World Health Organization’s regular harmless line of 15 µg/m³. The fig of cities with ‘Good’ aerial prime (0–30 µg/m³) dropped from 179 successful September to 68 successful October, portion those successful the ‘Satisfactory’ scope (31–60 µg/m³) roseate to 144. Twenty-seven cities entered the ‘Moderate’ class (61–90 µg/m³); 9 cities were classified arsenic ‘Poor’ (91–120 µg/m³); Dharuhera was the lone 1 successful the ‘Very Poor’ category.
The study besides highlighted disparities betwixt cities nether the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and those extracurricular of it. All 98 NCAP cities exceeded the WHO’s regular PM2.5 guideline, though 86 met India’s NAAQS.
Among 151 non-NCAP cities, 145 exceeded the WHO’s guideline, but 126 inactive met the nationalist standard, revealing that galore polluted cities stay extracurricular ceremonial mitigation frameworks.
CREA’s “overshoot analysis” revealed that 255 retired of 293 cities had already breached the WHO’s yearly PM2.5 modular by October, meaning they would neglect to conscionable the people adjacent if contamination dropped to adjacent zero for the remainder of the year. In contrast, lone 37 cities had breached India’s much lenient NAAQS, underscoring the urgent request to revise the 2009 standards to align with planetary wellness benchmarks.
A humanities examination with October 2024 shows that aerial prime successful the apical 10 astir polluted cities has worsened successful astir cases. Dharuhera, which had 10 ‘Very Poor’ days successful 2024, recorded 9 this twelvemonth but saw a higher mean PM2.5. Cities similar Ghaziabad and Noida besides showed an summation successful ‘Very Poor’ days, indicating a deepening situation contempt seasonal variations.
The study besides examined cities with a colonisation of implicit 1 cardinal successful the Indo-Gangetic Plain, revealing that astir each of them experienced a important emergence successful PM2.5 levels successful October. Many cities, including Ghaziabad, Delhi, Meerut, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Faridabad, consistently recorded PM2.5 concentrations good supra the NAAQS, with galore days falling into the ‘Poor’ and ‘Very Poor’ categories. These municipality centres, already grappling with dense populations and vehicular congestion, are present facing compounded wellness risks owed to sustained vulnerability to hazardous air.
State-wise information showed Haryana had 1 metropolis successful the ‘Very Poor’ category, 3 successful ‘Poor’, 5 successful ‘Moderate’, and 4 successful the ‘Satisfactory’ category. Maharashtra stood retired with 4 cities successful the ‘Good’ category, 26 successful ‘Satisfactory’, with nary successful the worst categories. Karnataka had 14 cities successful the ‘Good’ category, portion Tamil Nadu had 19 successful the ‘Good’ category, 5 successful ‘Satisfactory’, and 1 successful the ‘Moderate’ category.
Shillong, Meghalaya, was India’s cleanest metropolis successful October, with a PM2.5 mean of 10 µg/m³. Other cleanable cities included Gangtok, Mysuru, Kunjemura, Nagapattinam, Koppal, Chikkamagaluru, Yadgir, Tirunelveli, and Perundurai, mostly from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and the Northeast, each of which consistently recorded ‘Good’ aerial prime passim the month.
As India moves further into winter, CREA’s findings item that the country’s aerial contamination situation is not a seasonal occurrence but a systemic crisis, Mr. Kumar said. “While cities similar Mumbai whitethorn look to fare better, the barroom for “safe” aerial remains dangerously low, and without urgent, long-term, and region-specific interventions, the aerial that millions respire volition proceed to airs a soundless but deadly threat,” helium said.
