Air quality deteriorates in Mumbai ahead of Diwali

A day ahead of Diwali, air quality has fallen down drastically in Mumbai, Pune, and Aurangabad. Maharashtra is perched high on the pollution pedestal, with 97.60 per cent of the state's 12-crore people living in areas with 'hazardous or unacceptable levels of air pollution'. A World Bank Group study has ranked the state as the "third-most populous sub-national territory in the world", while the Energy Policy Institute, University of Chicago has said the state is the 15th most polluted in India.Mumbai has been placed as the 14th most polluted city in the world with average PM2.5 levels at 45.1mg/cubic metre by the US-based Health Effects Institute and Global Burden of Disease Project of the Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation collaborative 'Air Quality and Health in Cities' report, released in August 2022. The Greenpeace South Asia's Analysis from 2021 ranks Mumbai as the fifth most polluted in the world with the highest number of fatalities (25,000) attributable to air pollution, with Delhi leading as the most contaminated megacity in India.