Gurgaon: Five NCR cities were among India’s 10 most polluted in Oct, according to a monthly assessment by Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).Baraut in Baghpat topped the national list with a monthly average PM2.5 concentration of 87 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³), followed by Khoda in Ghaziabad at 85 µg/m³ and Gajraula in Amroha. Yamunanagar was fourth, Ghaziabad city fifth, Manesar sixth, Bahadurgarh eighth, Noida ninth and Meerut tenth. UP accounted for six cities in the top 10, Haryana three and Tamil Nadu one. Delhi ranked 19th on the list.In Haryana, Yamunanagar recorded the highest monthly average PM2.5 concentration at 82 µg/m³, followed by Manesar (80) and Bahadurgarh (76). Gurgaon ranked fourth among the state’s 25 cities, with an average of 74 µg/m³. Ballabgarh and Panipat recorded 70 µg/m³ each, followed by Jind at 67.Dharuhera and Ambala registered 62 each, while Charkhi Dadri and Sonipat recorded 61 each. Eleven of the 25 cities exceeded the national standard of 60 µg/m³.Nationally, 261 of the 267 cities with sufficient monitoring data exceeded World Health Organization’s daily PM2.5 guideline of 15 µg/m³, and only six met it. Thirty-eight cities exceeded India’s daily National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS).Delhi was the only megacity whose monthly average PM2.5 concentration, at 69 µg/m³, was above the daily national standard. Mumbai recorded three days and Kolkata four days above the standard, while Chennai and Bengaluru stayed below it throughout Oct, the snapshot said.The report also highlighted the contribution of stubble burning to Delhi’s pollution. Its share in the city’s PM2.5 concentration reached 16% on Nov 4, compared with peaks of around 22% in Nov 2025 and 38% in Nov 2024.CREA also released findings from three recent peer-reviewed studies affiliated with IITs, which examined PM2.5 sources at national, state, city and regional airshed levels. They point to the need for a broader approach than the emphasis on road dust mitigation under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which accounted for 67% of the funds utilised under the programme, CREA said.Industry was the largest domestic contributor to India’s population-weighted PM2.5 concentrations at 18%, followed by residential sources at 15% and power generation at 13%.The studies also found that emissions originating outside city boundaries accounted for 82-89% of urban PM2.5 concentrations across 143 Indian cities. This underlines the importance of coordinating pollution-control measures across city boundaries rather than relying only on local interventions.“Secondary PM2.5 accounted for 62% of annual ambient PM2.5, the findings showed, underlining the need to control gaseous precursors alongside directly emitted particulate matter. The findings call for a multi-sectoral approach targeting industrial, residential and power-generation emissions, with coordinated action across cities and states to address pollution sources across the airshed,” said Manoj Kumar, air analyst, CREA.
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