A 10-year assessment of air pollution across major urban centres has found that none of the country’s top cities met safe AQI levels at any point between 2015 and November 2025. The report, prepared by Climate Trends, analysed long-term pollution patterns across 11 major cities. The case with India is no different, with its capital Delhi, as always, remaining the most polluted city throughout the period of study with average AQIA levels peaking above 250 in 2016 and hovering around 180 this year.

Cities such as Lucknow, Varanasi and Ahmedabad, which recorded high average AQI values – often above 200 – in the first half of the decade, showed some improvement in the second half. While southern and western cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Bengaluru recorded relatively moderate AQIA

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