Swachh Vayu Survekshan 2024: This city has the cleanest air in India
Surat city of Gujarat has been ranked top in the air quality ranking in India. At the same time, Jabalpur city of Madhya Pradesh has got second place and Agra of Uttar Pradesh has got third place. These cities have made significant improvement in reducing air pollution.
The Union Environment Ministry organized a national workshop on Saturday in Jaipur to commemorate the ‘International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies’, in which ‘National Clean Air City’ awards were presented during the Clean Air Survey 2024 (Swachh Vayu Survekshan). Under this, Surat topped, Jabalpur was placed second and Agra third among cities with a population of more than 10 lakh.
Firozabad (UP), Amravati (Maharashtra) and Jhansi (UP) were considered the best among cities with a population between three lakh and 10 lakh. At the same time, Rae Bareli (UP), Nalgonda (Telangana) and Nalagarh (Himachal Pradesh) topped among cities with a population of less than three lakh.
The ‘Clean Air Survey’ is an initiative of the Ministry to rank cities based on implementation of approved activities under the Urban Action Plan and Air Quality in cities covered under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
These cities were awarded for significant improvement in air quality through various best practices to reduce air pollution. The main activities include paving of roads, promotion of mechanical sweeping, bioremediation of legacy waste, solid waste management, conversion of reclaimed land from dumpsites into green spaces, greenbelt development, intelligent traffic management systems and Miyawaki afforestation.
India launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019 with a target to reduce particulate pollution by 20-30 per cent by 2024 using 2017 as the base year. The target was later revised to a 40 per cent reduction by 2026 using 2019-20 as the base year.
The programme currently covers only 131 non-attainment cities, those that consistently failed to meet the national ambient air quality standards between 2011 and 2015.
