Toxic Delhi ranks ahead of Srinagar, Bengaluru in govt's clean-air ranking

The Centre's Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026 has ranked Delhi ahead of Srinagar and Bengaluru despite the national capital being in the news regularly for toxic air. That's because the survey rewards pollution-control efforts and implementation, not air quality alone.Delhi's AQI frequently crosses 400 in winter, entering the "severe" category. It occasionally breaches 450 too. (Photo: PTI)Delhi, which routinely battles toxic smog and hazardous air, has ranked ahead of cities like Srinagar and Bengaluru in the Centre's Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026. The national capital secured the 21st position among cities with populations above 10 lakh, while Srinagar and Bengaluru came 26th and 32nd, respectively. Lucknow topped the clean-air ranking.The ranking by the Union Environment Ministry, which was released on Monday, also assesses cities' pollution-control efforts, rather than simply measuring which has the cleanest air.Lucknow topped the million-plus category with 198 points, narrowly beating Indore, which has been named the cleanest city in India for eight consecutive years in the annual Swachh Survekshan rankings.Jabalpur was third with 195 points, followed by Bhopal and Agra, which shared fourth place with 192 points each. The Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan, conducted by the Union Environment Ministry under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), evaluates cities on measures such as road-dust control, solid-waste management, curbing vehicular and industrial emissions, construction-waste management and public awareness.Delhi's AQI frequently crosses 400 in winter, entering the "severe" category and occasionally breaching 450.Thus, a polluted city like Delhi can finish above a relatively cleaner one if its documented measures and implementation receive a higher score. Delhi ranked 32nd in the 2025 Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan, with a final score of 157.3. Indore topped the ranking in 2025, with Jabalpur coming second, and Agra and Surat in the third place.DELHI RANKED ABOVE SRINAGAR, BENGALURU FOR CLEAN AIRDelhi scored 172 and shared the 21st rank with Visakhapatnam in the category covering cities with more than 10 lakh people. Srinagar scored 162.6 points to finish 26th, while Bengaluru received 152.6 points and stood 32nd, according to the official results.Patna performed better than all three, securing 16th rank with 178 points.Delhi also finished ahead of Mumbai, which ranked 28th with 160.8 points, Chennai at 35th with 147.7 points, and Kolkata at 38th with 142.2 points. Hyderabad, however, placed above Delhi at number 19.In the category for cities with populations between three lakh and 10 lakh, Rourkela in Odisha ranked first, followed by Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh jointly in second place, and Amravati in Maharashtra in third. Among cities with populations below three lakh, Odisha's Kalinga Nagar topped the list, followed by Angul and Talcher, also in Odisha.Delhi's position might appear surprising because it remains among India's most polluted urban centres.Even in 2025, described by the government as Delhi's best year for particulate pollution since 2018, barring the Covid-hit 2020, its annual average PM10 concentration was 198 micrograms per cubic metre and PM2.5 was 97 micrograms per cubic metre. These were far above India's annual standards of 60 and 40 micrograms per cubic metre, respectively, according to the ministry.The capital's air also deteriorated sharply during the 2025-26 winter.In January 2026, authorities invoked Stage IV of the Graded Response Action Plan after Delhi's air entered the most polluted bracket.The fifth edition of the Centre's Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026, which was released on Monday, assessed 130 NCAP cities in three population groups. The survey process involved self-assessment by cities, approval by state-level monitoring committees, evaluation by the Central Pollution Control Board and field verification by independent panels.The government said 108 of the 130 cities recorded lower PM10 levels in 2025-26 than in the 2017-18 baseline year, but only 14 met the national standard.- EndsPublished By: Sushim MukulPublished On: Sep 7, 2026 19:15 IST