Guess Which Place In India Has The Lowest AQI Right Now? These TN Towns Top The Charts

According to the AQI Bulletin issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), 30 cities — out of 258 listed — had air quality that qualified as ‘good’ on November 3 (Sunday).

The AQI in Tiruchirappalli was an easy breezy 15 on Sunday.

Source : https://tiruchirappalli.nic.in/

Delhi AQI: Cough, cough… Is the toxic Delhi air getting you down, stoking fantasies about clear skies, cool breeze and a breather for your lungs? Guess what? There are plenty of places in India where you’ll find exactly that even as North India fights its yearly duel with the deadly smog.

According to the AQI Bulletin issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), 30 cities — out of 258 listed — had air quality that qualified as ‘good’ on November 3 (Sunday).

The places with the lowest AQI were Tiruchirappalli (15), Ramanathapuram (16), Thoothukudi (19), Ariyalur (21), and Madikeri (26). While the first four are in Tamil Nadu, Madikeri, a lush hill town in the Western Ghats, is in Karnataka. 

Others in the top 10 include Tirunelveli (29), Tamil Nadu; Koppal (31), Karnataka; Madurai (32), Tamil Nadu; Puducherry (33); and Gangtok (35), Sikkim.

Meanwhile, Delhi-NCR AQIs continue to be alarmingly high: Delhi (382) was categorised as having ‘very poor’ air quality, while Ghaziabad (290) was ‘poor’. Noida (313) was ‘very poor’, and Greater Noida (248) ‘poor’. The air quality in Gurugram (281), meanwhile, was ‘poor’.

Understanding AQI

The CPCB bulletin lists six categories of AQI, from ‘good’ to ‘severe’: ‘Good’ corresponds to an AQI of 0-50 and means minimal impact on health, while ‘Satisfactory’ covers an AQI of 51-100 and can cause “minor breathing discomfort to sensitive people”.

An AQI of 101-200 is ‘Moderate’, and associated with breathing discomfort to people with lung and heart diseases; 201-300 is ‘Poor’ and causes “breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure”; 301-400 is ‘Very Poor’ and causes respiratory illness on prolonged exposure. An AQI of 401-500 is ‘Severe’, and “affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases”.

The bulletin also comes with certain riders. A total of 31 cities are absent from the list because of insufficient data. These include Ballabgarh, Bathinda, Ernakulam, Srinagar, Shillong and Kohima.

In case of a city with multiple monitoring locations, it adds, “average value is used to indicate air quality”. “Air quality may show variations across locations, and averaging is not a scientifically sound approach. However, for the sake of simplicity this method is being followed.”