Cleanest city Indore on list of 37 with dirty air | India News

NEW DELHI: Indore might be the cleanest city of India for the sixth time in a row this year since 2017 but it has flunked big time on the air quality front.
Recent analysis of 132 cities by the environment ministry shows that Indore is among the 37 cities whose PM10 (respirable particulate matter) pollutant levels actually increased in 2021-22 over 2017.
Six out of seven cities of Madhya Pradesh, analysed on air quality front, reported increase in the levels of PM10 — the pollutant which can get deep into the lungs and cause great risk to human health. Incidentally, MP is the cleanest state under the ‘Swachh Survekshan 2022’.
Over the years, Swachh Survekshan under ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ has emerged as an effective tool for transforming the urban landscape as a larger goal of making India garbage-free. As many as 4,355 cities/towns participated in different categories of the survey this year for which over nine crore people extended their feedback.
Indore was adjudged India’s cleanest city for the sixth consecutive year, in the ‘more than 1 lakh population’ category, while Surat in Gujarat was adjudged the second cleanest city, for the second time in a row. Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra bagged the third spot.
On the air quality front, the environment ministry found that 95 cities recorded overall improvement by recording a decline in average annual PM10 levels in 2021-22 compared to 2017 while 37 cities recorded an increase in levels of such pollutants during the period. Six out of seven cities of MP are in the list of 37 which were found to be dirtier in terms of air quality. Second and third cleanest cities Surat and Navi Mumbai, respectively, on the other hand, reported an improvement in air quality.