Lucknow : Six UP cities were among the most polluted in the country . Five of these cities were under the ‘severe’ pollution category with the Air Quality Index (AQI) above 400.
Delhi ranks fourth for the average annual particulate matter pollution in 2016, 19% deterioration since 2014. Other cities are Jaipur, Dhanbad, Ranchi and Amritsar.
Lucknow and Kanpur (both had AQI 426) continued to be in ‘severely polluted’ category for the third day.
“The main cause is increasing vehicle use in absence of adequate public transport system, construction activity, coal burning and high emission thermal plants,” said Aarti Khosla, India Programme Lead, Global Strategic Communications Council.
While this winter the focus on air pollution control had been on Delhi and its neighbourhood, most of the UP cities, including Allahabad, had witnessed heavy smog.
