Bengaluru: On December 11, the Union environment ministry defended India’s existing air quality standards as well as its sliding ranks in global environment and air quality indices in parliament. It said that the global rankings of cities based on air pollution levels are not conducted by an “official authority”.

On December 9, also in parliament, the same ministry said there was no national data to establish a “direct correlation” between the deaths of people and air pollution.

These stands are not new.

The Indian government has consistently ignored, rejected and questioned scientific data surrounding air pollution. For instance, it has asserted – multiple times – that there is no direct link to connect air pollution and human deaths in India. Add to this allegations of data manipulation and using flawed data to arrive at conclusions, and it’s a potent mix.

Here’s how this has been unravelling: The Wire compiles a list of some of the justifications used by the Union environment ministry to respond to concerns surrounding air pollution in the national capital.

‘Not official’

“Worldwide ranking of cities for pollution levels is not being conducted by official authority,” said Kirti Vardhan Singh, minister of state in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in parliament on December 11.

The minister was responding to MP V. Sivadasan’s questions in the Rajya Sabha, which included queries about India’s global rankings in various indices such as the IQAir World Air Quality Ranking and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI).

The 2024 World Air Quality Report by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company, ranked India as the world’s fifth-most polluted country in March this year, as The Wire reported.

Per the report, 74 of the 100 most polluted cities in the world in 2024 are in India, including three of the top four. Byrnihat in Meghalaya was the world’s most polluted city, with a fine particulate matter concentration of 128.2 µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre), more than 25 times the WHO's guideline limit. Delhi followed a close second.

IQAir uses air quality data from a huge range of sources for its reports. The 2024 report, for instance, used data sourced from over “40,000 regulatory air quality monitoring stations and low-cost sensors operated by a diverse range of entities including government agencies, research institutions, non-profit organisations, schools, universities, private sector companies and dedicated citizen scientists worldwide”.

The EPI, another index that Sivadasan asked about, is put together by scientists from institutes including the universities of Yale and Columbia and is based on countries’ performance across a range of environment indicators. The latest EPI released in June last year ranked India at 176 out of 180 countries.

Though these indices are not developed or mandated by a regulatory body, they are based on science and detailed methodology.

The EPI 2022, for instance, analysed 40 performance indicators, such as particulate matter levels and projected greenhouse gas emissions, across 11 categories (including air quality and climate change mitigation). The scientists then used this to rank 180 countries on their “progress toward improving environmental health, protecting ecosystem vitality and mitigating climate change”.

According to the developers of the EPI, the methodology has been refined over two decades and builds on the most recent data. The EPI 2024 took into account 58 indicators across 11 issue categories, ranging from climate change mitigation and air pollution to waste management, sustainability of fisheries and agriculture, deforestation, and biodiversity protection.

So while consecutive EPIs may not be comparable, the Index still ranks countries for their actions on a fixed set of parameters each year.

Questioning methodology

The Indian government has consistently questioned many of these rankings, and India’s dips in ranks in these indices, by questioning the science that goes into them.

For instance, India ranked the lowest – 180 – in the EPI 2022. Two days later, the Union environment ministry issued a press release rejecting the ranking, alleging that the Index was based on “surmises and unscientific methods”, as The Wire reported.

The ministry also alleged that the Index uses “outdated” data. Though the Ministry had requested that the EPI refer to the India State of Forests Report (ISFR) 2021 for the latest data on biodiversity variables, this was not done, the ministry said.

Incidentally, experts have already raised numerous questions about the methodology used in the ISFR 2021 (as well as other ISFR reports), which suggest that India is more forested than it really is.

The goal of the EPI is to “inform current policy choices, not place blame on countries for contributing to climate change or destroying the environment”, Martin Wolf, lead author of the Index and principal investigator at the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy, had told The Wire in 2022 in response to these allegations by India’s environment ministry.

In fact, the best use of the EPI is to compare countries to their peers; for example, it is useful to compare India to other major developing countries, like China, he had said.

Similarly, in July this year, Singh alleged that the IQAir 2024 report released earlier in March was “misleading” due to limitations in data sources and methodology.

Use of flawed methods

India’s questions about methodology come at a time when the Union environment ministry may itself be using flawed methods to conclude that the numbers of farm fires in the states of Punjab and Haryana have decreased drastically, as a recent report shows.

Studies such as this one have identified farm fires as a major source of ‘episodic’ pollution in early winter in Delhi, which is among the top cities with the most polluted air in the world.

On December 1, the Union environment minister said in parliament that between September 15 and November 30 this year, the number of farm fires had decreased by a staggering 90% in Punjab and Haryana, and put this down to efforts taken by the government to bring them down.

On December 11, the environment ministry reiterated this again in a press note. “With the coordinated efforts, the States of Punjab and Haryana have collectively recorded about 90% reduction in fire incidences during paddy harvesting season in the year 2025 in comparison to the same period in the year 2022,” the note claimed.

However, a recent analysis of satellite imagery released on December 8 by research think-tank iFOREST found that the decrease in farm fires is actually a picture painted by the use of wrong data.

The government relies on polar-orbiting satellites that pass over India between 10:30 am and 1.30 pm every day. These satellites however miss the majority of farm fires in Punjab and Haryana that, since 2019, have been occurring after 3 pm and peaking at 5 pm, the recent analysis found, as The Wire reported.

While data from other satellite images show that there has indeed been a decrease in the area of burnt cropland, this is only about a 30% decrease when compared to 2022. iFOREST researchers recommend that India combine the use of both polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites to develop a better picture of the decrease in farm fires.

‘Only guidelines’

On December 11, in parliament, Singh said that the WHO's guidelines on air quality “serve as only a guidance document and these are recommended values for air pollutants to help countries achieve air quality”.

“However, countries prepare their air quality standards based on geography, environmental factors, background levels, socio-economic status and national circumstances,” he said.

He added that India’s Union health ministry had notified the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for 12 air pollutants to safeguard public health and environment quality.

Singh is right. The WHO’s guidelines are indeed that: guidelines. They are not mandatory for countries to adopt, nor are they legally binding, as the Union environment ministry insisted in a press release in 2022.

However, these guidelines are based on science. In September 2021, the WHO updated its own Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) based on increasing scientific data about how air pollution, especially particulate matter, affects human health.

“Since WHO’s last 2005 global update, there has been a marked increase of evidence that shows how air pollution affects different aspects of health,” the WHO noted. “For that reason, and after a systematic review of the accumulated evidence, WHO has adjusted almost all the AQGs levels downwards, warning that exceeding the new air quality guideline levels is associated with significant risks to health. At the same time, however, adhering to them could save millions of lives.”

Specifically, for fine particulate matter or PM2.5 (particulate matter that is less than 2.5 microns in diameter), the WHO recommends that its levels should be no more than 15 µg/m3 for a 24-hour period (and 5 µg/m3 annually). Similarly, PM10 (particulate matter that is less than 10 microns in diameter) levels should not be more than 50 µg/m3 for a 24-hour period (and 20 µg/m3 annually).

India’s current air quality standards are lax when compared to the standards recommended by the WHO.

The NAAQS sets the safe concentration of fine particulate matter at not more than 60 µg/m3 for a 24-hour period, and 40 µg/m3 annually. The concentration of particulate matter PM10 should not be more than 100 µg/m3 across a 24-hour period, and 60 µg/m3 annually.

No revisions

While India announced its first air quality standards in the early 1980s, and updated it in 1994 and 1998, the government notified the NAAQS in 2009. It set safe limits for 12 air pollutants in the country, with different limits for ecologically sensitive areas, and industrial, residential, rural and other areas.

Though a 2022 press release of the Union environment ministry says that the NAAQS is revised periodically “to include new advancements in air pollution monitoring and its health impact”, the permissible limits of air pollutants have not been updated since 2009. In the same press release, the ministry announced that a revision of the NAAQS was underway, and that it had been assigned to a joint team led by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

Nothing has come of this so far.

On December 12 a parliamentary panel – the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change – asked the Union government to come up with an updated NAAQS “at the earliest”, according to its report tabled in the Lok Sabha.

Speaking at the online launch of the virtual Health Benefit Assessment Dashboard (developed by Climate Trends and IIT Delhi) on September 30, Soumya Swaminathan, chairperson of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and former chief scientist at the WHO, noted that India needs to “take a relook” at our national air quality standards.

“Recent evidence, science, is telling us that the relationship between PM2.5 exposure and health impacts is very steep at lower levels, so bringing down even every ug/m3 below 60 to 5 ug/m3, which is the WHO cut off, would have a huge impact,” she added.

Of course, India cannot go to the WHO standards overnight, but it can take a phased approach towards that as a longer-term goal and set targets by year and monitor and achieve them, Swaminathan had added.

Clean air will become “an asset” this way, she said: it provides not only health but also economic benefits and should be seen as an investment for the future, she added.

National goals and circumstances

The 2022 press release by the Union environment ministry pertaining to the NAAQS also said that the WHO itself admits that national standards are to be set based on factors including “national goals”.

“The guideline makes recommendations for air quality levels to protect health of population and specifically mention that national standards should be decided in due consideration of other governing factors like background level, socio-economic status, national goals and further scientific research based outcome,” the 2022 press release read.

‘National circumstances’ found their way into the government’s stance on December 11 this year too.

Countries prepare their respective air quality standards based on “geography, environmental factors, background levels, socio-economic status and national circumstances”, Singh said in his response in parliament on December 11.

That’s because air pollution, fossil fuel use and climate change are all interlinked.

‘National goals’ and ‘national circumstances’ are terms commonly used in the context of undertaking action to tackle climate change. It refers to the need to incorporate different factors (such as poverty eradication) while developing and implementing climate change mitigation measures, such as reducing the use of fossil fuels to curb carbon emissions and bring down the impacts of climate change.

Developing countries such as India have stood firm that they can limit carbon emissions but not at the expense of socio-economic issues like poverty eradication, citing the fact that developed countries have already emitted more than their fair share of emissions historically during their growth trajectories.

Air pollution and climate change are thus linked: the use of fossil fuels (in vehicles or coal-fired power plants) are among the prime sources of fine particulate matter, a major air pollutant.

Scientific papers suggest that implementing systems to bring down air pollution (which means reducing fossil fuel use) can also work as climate change mitigation measures – which could be a win-win for India.

China, which was once home to the most polluted city in the world (its capital, Beijing), has done this. A 2023 study, for instance, found that strict implementation of vehicular emission regulations in China in several pilot cities reduced air quality indices in these cities drastically.

Beijing has now gone from an AQI in the 700s in the early 2000s to a staggering 13 in 2025, as a resident of the city wrote for The Wire in September this year. As the author writes, the city now has clear blue skies: something that gradual but steady and strict enforcement has made possible.

‘No direct link’

On December 9, in parliament, the Union environment ministry said there was no national data to establish a “direct correlation” between the deaths of people and air pollution.

This is an oft-repeated argument by the ministry. For instance, along with calling the IQAir 2024 report “misleading”, Singh had also mentioned in parliament in July this year that there was no conclusive data linking air pollution to cause deaths and impacting public health across India.

However, a letter written by the Union health secretary to states in November last year also contained a document pertaining to the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health, as The Wire reported.

This document highlighted a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research that said that 17 lakh deaths in India were ‘attributable’ to air pollution in 2019. Several other government documents too have attributed deaths to air pollution, which The Wire has listed in the news report.

On October 29 this year, The Wire reported on the ninth edition of the ‘Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’, which, prepared in collaboration with the WHO, said that the deaths of more than 17.18 lakh Indians in 2022 can be linked to air pollution. This is an increase of 38% since 2010, the report noted.

The report also gave a detailed break-up of deaths due to air pollution in the country. Fossil fuels (coal and liquid gas) contributed to 7,52,000 (44%) of these deaths in 2022, while coal alone accounted for 3,94,000 deaths, predominantly due to its use in power plants (the latter caused 2,98,000 deaths). The use of petrol for road transportation contributed to 2,69,000 deaths. The use of polluting cooking fuels in the country was associated with 113 deaths per every 1,00,000 deaths.

Mortality rates associated with household air pollution were higher in rural than urban areas (125 per 1,00,000 in rural versus 99 per 100,000 in urban areas).

In November this year, an analysis of the latest Global Burden of Disease data by researchers at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that toxic air was Delhi’s single biggest killer in 2023, causing nearly 15% of all deaths in the national capital.

One in seven deaths in the capital stemmed from exposure to fine particulate matter. This means that around 17,188 lives were lost due to pollution in 2023. The report found that air pollution is a deadlier risk factor than other major health issues including high blood pressure (which caused 12.5% of the total deaths or 14,874 deaths in total) and high blood sugar (diabetes) which caused 10,653 deaths (9%).

And the government still says there is no national data to link air pollution to deaths in India.

Missing, manipulated data

A few hours into Diwali evening on October 20 this year, data went missing: the government’s open-access websites that provide real-time monitoring of air quality were unavailable for several hours. This is not the first time that the stations have stopped providing data, an air quality scientist had told The Wire.

“Such missing data hampers data-driven insights, understanding contribution of certain activities, their impact on health as well as skews the daily pollution level recordings, giving a false sense of lower air pollution levels,” the scientist had said.

A few days later, the Aam Aadmi Party accused the ruling party in Delhi, the BJP, of manipulating pollution data by using tankers to spray water near air quality monitoring stations. Mists of water help settle particulate matter, thus artificially lowering their concentrations on the monitors.

The Indian Express reported that water sprinkler trucks were continuing to make rounds at regular intervals around air quality monitoring stations in Delhi. Newslaundry reported that at Jahangirpuri (one of Delhi’s 13 officially declared pollution “hotspots”), tankers employed by the Public Works Department were spraying water around an air quality monitoring station located inside the Industrial Training Institute campus.

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