Ghaziabad: The city of Ghaziabad yet again emerged as the most polluted city across the country with an air quality index (AQI) of 430 on Thursday, as per the daily bulletin of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The city is not faring well in terms of pollution, as it topped the list of the most polluted cities on November 17 and 19 as well.
The CPCB figures showed Ghaziabad recording an AQI of 430 under the “severe” category, with primary pollutants being PM10 and PM2.5. The city has continuously faced “severe” pollution since November 16, and AQIs have stood at 419, 401, 434, 422, and 430 each day till November 20.
The period — November 16 to November 20 — has been the worst, as these are the first “severe” days for Ghaziabad in the year 2025. Comparatively, the city faced two “severe” days each in the November months of 2024, 2023, and 2022.
On Thursday, monitoring stations in Indirapuram, Loni, Sanjay Nagar, and Vasundhara experienced “severe” AQI with figures of 413, 461, 433, and 414, respectively, till 4pm.
“The pollution levels rise in the region as there is huge urbanisation with housing and use of vehicles. So, as the temperatures decline and wind velocity decreases, the pollution levels rise. At present, there is hardly any wind speed observed, and the conditions are likely to prevail for the next three to four days,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice president for meteorology and climate change at Skymet Weather.
“Since the wind direction is not from states like Punjab and Haryana, etc., the contribution of stubble burning has reduced,” Palawat added.
Ankit Kumar, the Ghaziabad regional officer of the UP pollution control board, did not take calls for a response about the prevailing situation.
The other two cities that experienced “severe” pollution on Thursday in the CPCB list were Baghpat and Noida, which recorded respective AQIs of 428 and 408.
In Noida, the four monitoring stations at sector 125, sector 62, sector 1, and sector 116 recorded AQIs of 441, 347, 412, and 430, respectively, till 4pm on Thursday.
Noida this month has experienced four “severe” pollution days on November 11, 12, 19, and 20.
Greater Noida, on the other hand, stood under the “very poor” category with an AQI of 380. The city has so far experienced five “severe” pollution days on November 11, 15, 16, 18, and 19.
CPCB classifies air as “good” when the AQI is 0-50, “satisfactory” between 51 and 100, “moderate” between 101 and 200, “poor” between 201 and 300, “very poor” between 301 and 400, and “severe” above 400.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, Ghaziabad recorded the maximum and minimum temperatures of 24.7 and 12.6 degrees Celsius, respectively, on Thursday, while Gautam Budh Nagar recorded 27.5 degrees Celsius (°C) as the maximum and 11.5°C as the minimum temperature on Thursday.