India's Most Polluted City: Not Delhi, But Meghalaya's Byrnihat Tops List

• Byrnihat, Meghalaya, on the Assam border, is India's most polluted city for PM2.5, surpassing Delhi and Ghaziabad.
• A CREA report, 'Tracing the Hazy Air 2026', reveals 190 Indian cities exceed annual PM10 safe limits and 103 exceed PM2.5 standards.
• Approximately 44% of Indian cities (1787 out of 4041) are 'chronic non-attainment' for PM2.5, failing standards for over 5 years.
• Byrnihat's high pollution is attributed to heavy industrial activities like distilleries, iron-steel, cement, and beverage factories in a small area.
• The National Clean Air Program (NCAP) covers only a fraction of consistently polluted cities, with uneven progress and funding allocation.

Why It Matters: Meghalaya's Byrnihat is India's most polluted city, highlighting widespread industrial pollution and NCAP's limited reach.