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Gurugram world's most polluted city, 20 Indian cities in top 25, reveals Greenpeace report

Gurugram world's most polluted city, 20 Indian cities in top 25, reveals Greenpeace report

Air pollution

Gurugram has been ranked the most polluted city in the world, while New Delhi is the most polluted national capital, according to a recent study conducted by environment NGO Greenpeace India.

According to the study 20 out of the 25 most-polluted cities across the world are in India.

New Delhi's neighbour regions Gurugram and Ghaziabad topped the charts while the capital city took the eleventh spot in the worldwide list in 2018.

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The remaining five out of 25 most polluted cities in the world are spread in China, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The report measures the air quality in terms of PM2.5 data as aggregated through the IQAir AirVisual platform in 2018.

According to the information obtained during the study based on the PM2.5 data of the different cities in the world, report says that of the cities included in South Asia, it is interesting to note that, although Delhi typically receives most media coverage as one of the world’s 'pollution capitals', the Indian capital 'only' ranks 10th for annual PM2.5 concentration. Other cities across Northern India and Pakistan have a higher recorded annual PM2.5 level, with nearby Gurugram narrowly resulting in the highest annual concentration of any global city recorded here during 2018.

Air pollution will take an estimated seven million lives globally in the next year while costing the world’s economy nearly $ 225 billion, said the Greenpeace report.

According to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, the annual permissible limit for PM2.5 is 40ug/m3. The annual permissible limits prescribed by the World Health Organization are even lower at 10ug/m3.​

According to the report, air pollution will cause around 7 million premature deaths globally next year and have a major economic impact.