Gasp!

Breathe in, breathe out...not difficult, right? But, in some parts of the world this isn’t an easy task. And, it’s because of air pollution. Did you know that it’s the worst in India?

In Gurugram, India, it is a common sight to see students in uniform with face masks. No, the face mask is not a part of the uniform, but is as important. It is worn in the hope of warding off breathing problems. Why? Because Gurugram has been declared as the world’s most polluted city, and the residents can well vouch for it. The city is developing so fast that the construction industry is in a tizzy. More people also means more vehicles on the road. If these two reasons were not enough, the city receives a lot of transported dust from the north-west and west. The Aravalli Range that is crucial and could act as buffer may soon have a road constructed through it, doing away with the last safety catch.

In India, Gurugram is not the only city that falls in the “most polluted” category. Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Bhiwadi, Noida, Patna and Lucknow are the other Indian cities that made it to the top 10 in the list.

Pakistan is not far behind with Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Faisalabad making the list. Faisalabad was labelled the third most polluted city in the world.

Graded

So, who determines the pollution levels in the cities? Environmental NGO Greenpeace and IQ AirVisual, a software company that tracks pollution worldwide conducted, complied and analysed the study. A total of 3,095 cities have been ranked starting with the most polluted and going down to the least.

In 2017, China was in the top slot of most polluted cities. But by 2018, the capital Beijing was out of the top 100 list. This is following the concerted efforts to get air pollution under control. Hotan in China, in the far west, had been ranked one among the worst offenders. Many residents said the air was so smoggy they could not see the neighbouring buildings. Today, it is a different story. Though China made giant strides in cleaning up its act, other Asian countries like Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand are still lagging behind.

Here’s a scary statistic about Kabul, Afghanistan. According to Al Jazeera — a news agency, the city’s air pollution has claimed more lives than its current war. The number of old vehicles emitting hazardous pollutants on the streets is more than the city can handle. Many children end up in the hospital with breathing conditions because of the intense pollution in Kabul.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most of the cities high up in the list are from Asia. This is because, Asia has the largest number of people in the world and many of the cities keep growing and becoming more developed, with new jobs, buildings and vehicles on the rise. Dhaka (Bangladesh), Manama (Bahrain), Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), Kuwait City (Kuwait), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Kathmandu (Nepal) and Lukavac (Bosnia and Herzegovina — the only European country) are the other countries that are in the top 100 list of most polluted cities, with the majority being cities from both India and China.