Is India Winning the War Against Pollution? The fight for cleaner air and water intensifies as the nation grapples with the escalating impacts of climate change. From the devastating floods in Assam to the alarming rise in air pollution levels in Delhi, environmental challenges demand urgent action. This week saw crucial discussions on sustainable agriculture and renewable energy sources at the India Climate Change Conference, highlighting the government's commitment to tackling deforestation and promoting biodiversity conservation. But are these efforts enough? Experts warn of looming water scarcity and the need for stricter regulations on industrial emissions. The future of India's environment hangs in the balance, demanding collective responsibility and innovative solutions. Explore Abtak.com for in-depth analysis and the latest updates on environmental policies, climate activism, and the ongoing struggle for a sustainable India. Discover how you can contribute to a greener tomorrow.
Gurgaon: Every morning, a dense, acrid haze settles over the new sectors near Sikohpur and Dhanwapur, forcing residents to start their day with stinging eyes and burning throats.The culprit? Unchecked open burning of garbage, which has turned these neighbourhoods into veritable gas chambers at a time when the city's air quality dips low.For months, residents have watched helplessly as piles of mixed waste -- ranging from plastic and rubber to construction debris -- are routinely set alight on va ...Read More >
Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation's solid waste management department has unveiled a plan to deploy battery-powered vehicles equipped with audio systems that will play popular songs to encourage citizens to segregate waste. This initiative will mark a shift from the existing practice of waste collectors using whistles to alert households.Initially, these vehicles will be deployed in neighbourhoods with low rates of waste segregation. Currently, KMC conservancy workers collect kitchen waste ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: India trialled cloud seeding over its smog-filled capital for the first time, spraying a chemical from an aeroplane to encourage rain and wash deadly particles out of the air. Cloud seeding is the practice of using aeroplanes to fire salt or other chemicals into clouds to induce rain. New Delhi city authorities, working with the government's Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, launched a test run on Thursday (Oct 23) afternoon using a Cessna light aeroplane over the city's northe ...Read More >
Jaipur: Officials from Jaipur Municipal Corporations, Heritage and Greater had promised before Diwali that no open garbage depots or littered streets would be seen after the festival. However, the very next morning, the city woke up to streets with overflowing bins, plastic waste, and scattered remains of fireworks, a sight that still hasn't changed.The sanitation work in the city has been slow for the past five days, as several municipal employees have remained on extended holidays. In several ...Read More >
New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) Delhi's air quality showed a slight improvement on Saturday morning, with the AQI in 'poor' category at 261, marking a drop from the 290 recorded a day before, CPCB data showed. However, Anand Vihar was in the 'severe' category with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 415, the highest among all the monitoring stations in the capital, according to the Sameer app developed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Seven stations recorded 'very poor' AQI, while the rest rem ...Read More >
Noida: The air quality index (AQI) in the city improved on Friday to 246 from 276 a day earlier, but remained in the 'poor' category. In Greater Noida too, the AQI showed improvement, falling from 280 to 262, while Ghaziabad saw a marginal deterioration, rising to 269 from 252 on Thursday.Station-wise, Noida's Sector 116, which covers the 7x sectors, recorded an AQI of 263, Sector 62 registered 256, Sector 1 stood at 254, and Sector 125 recorded 222, all in the 'poor' category. In Greater Noida, ...Read More >
New Delhi: Even as Delhi govt prepares to set up 23 major Chhath ghats along the Yamuna, the Delhi stretch of the river, which was visibly cleaner after the monsoon rain, is showing renewed signs of degradation. Frothing has reappeared in parts of it -- a sign that pollution levels are rising again. Delhi Pollution Control Committee's monthly analysis for Oct shows a sharp rise in pollution levels compared to Sept, a month when the Yamuna was the cleanest in the recorded history due to the stron ...Read More >
Bhubaneswar, Oct 24 (UNI) Forest officials seized around 15 quintals of mangrove roots that bore striking resemblance to sandalwood in Bhitarkanika National Park on Friday and arrested nine persons, including five women, for trespassing into protected forest and felling trees. Ten quintals of Salacia prinoides roots and stems locally called Batara, an important mangrove species packed in 20 sacks, and five quintals of ceriops decandra roots locally called as Garani packed in 10 sacks, were seiz ...Read More >
New Delhi : Igniting the next wave of renewable innovation, Informa Markets in India, the nation's foremost curator of B2B growth platforms, proudly announces the 18th edition of Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo, Asia's largest and most influential clean energy congregation. Scheduled from October 30 to November 1, 2025, at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, REI 2025 will once again be co-located with the 3rd edition of The Battery Show India, together advancing India's vision for a cleaner, green ...Read More >
CHENNAI: Two years after the state government issued an order to set up the Turtle Conservation and Rehabilitation Centre in Guindy Park in Chennai, Tamil Nadu Coastal Restoration Mission has floated a tender for the construction of the centre at Rs 6.30 Crore. The centre will be constructed with the fund of Tamil Nadu: Strengthening Coastal Resilience and the Economy Project (TN-SHORE), which is a World Bank-aided project. Under the new centre, a rescue and treatment centre will be set up to ...Read More >
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game of Thrones star and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador, has highlighted Odisha's mangrove restoration in the latest season of his global documentary series, 'An Optimist's Guide to the Planet'. The newly released season premiered on Wednesday, drawing attention to climate resilience work in India. The opening episode, titled "Protect," looks at the Enhancing Climate Resilience of India's Coastal Communities (ECRICC) initiative in Odisha's ...Read More >
New Delhi: In an unprecedented step to combat the city's worsening air quality, the Delhi government is preparing to conduct its first-ever artificial rain experiment on October 29 through cloud seeding. The initiative, led by IIT Kanpur and coordinated with IMD Pune, aims to trigger rainfall that could help cleanse the city's polluted atmosphere following Diwali celebrations. Here's what the government has planned: Announcing the project, Environment Minister Majinder Singh Sirsa said the Rs ...Read More >
New Delhi: Delhi's air quality showed minor improvement on Friday morning as the city's overall Air Quality Index (AQI) shifted from the "very poor" to "poor" category, clocking in at 290, according to the Sameer app by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Anand Vihar Records Worst Air Quality Despite the slight relief citywide, Anand Vihar continued to suffer with the highest recorded AQI of 403, firmly in the "severe" zone. In total, 15 monitoring stations still reported "very poor" a ...Read More >
Despite unseasonal rainfall, pollution levels refuse to drop with BKC, Malad, Deonar, all in the 'very poor' AQI category The festive fervour in Mumbai on Tuesday was marred by excessive pollution and smoggy air. As the Diwali festivities continued, the city's Air Quality Index (AQI) plunged deeper into the 'very poor' zone, with thick smog settling over key neighbourhoods stretching from Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) to Byculla and Malad. Despite the unseasonal showers across the city in the eve ...Read More >
Noida: After four consecutive days of very poor air quality, Noida saw a marked improvement due to sustained northwesterly winds, clocking up to 10 to 15 kilometre per hour (kmph) speed, that helped disperse pollutants lingering in the airshed since Diwali. On Thursday, AQI improved from 330 (very poor) the previous day to 282 (poor). The city's air quality index had worsened pre-Diwali as wind speed slowed and temperature dipped on Oct 19. On Diwali, a thick layer of haze blanketed the city -- ...Read More >
New Delhi: Haryana released additional water into the Yamuna's main channel from the Hathnikund Barrage, days before Chhath Puja, data from Central Water Commission (CWC) shows.The higher flow is expected to improve the water quality and ensure adequate flow for the festival, some experts said. An official, however, said that the move was for rejuvenating the river, "not just for Chhath Puja. It's also to maintain the river's flow and keep it clean." CWC data shows that since 5 pm on Tuesday, no ...Read More >
Gurgaon: For a brief moment on Thursday, city residents could breathe a little easier. The city's average air quality index (AQI) dropped to 208, down from 281 the previous day, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).The improvement, however, is only a temporary reprieve. The air will remain in the 'poor' category -- still dangerous for children, the elderly, and anyone with respiratory issues.Officials said the short-lived relief was due to stronger surface winds and clearer sk ...Read More >
Delhi water minister said the equipment, a Watermaster Classic IV, will be used to augment the Yamuna cleaning efforts and enhance the river's water-carrying capacity. Delhi water minister Parvesh Verma on Wednesday said that a state-of-the-art dredging machine from Finland will arrive in the Capital by December to aid in the desilting and dredging of Yamuna and the Najafgarh drain. Sharing a demonstration video on social media, Verma said the equipment, a Watermaster Classic IV, will be used t ...Read More >
New Delhi, Oct 23 (PTI) The Delhi government has procured an advanced machine from Finland to undertake large-scale dredging, desilting, and cleaning operations in the Yamuna river, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Parvesh Verma said on Thursday. The machine, called Amphibious Classic 4 Multipurpose Dredger Machine, will arrive in India before December and will be operational from January, he added. According to officials, capable of operating both on land and in water, the machine "combi ...Read More >
New Delhi, Oct 23: India has climbed to the ninth spot globally in total forest area while retaining its third rank in annual forest area gain, according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The Environment Ministry said the achievement reflects the success of India's large-scale afforestation initiatives and community-led forest protection efforts under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav described the rise from t ...Read More >
Around 20 million people in India's capital woke up on Wednesday breathing the most polluted air of any major city in the world, a day after celebrations for the Diwali festival, during which revelers typically set off fireworks and firecrackers. As of Wednesday, New Delhi's PM 2.5 concentration - a measure of pollutants in the air - was more than 40 times the World Health Organization's annualized guideline level, according to Swiss air quality monitoring company IQAir. New Delhi grapples wit ...Read More >
The results have also cast serious doubt on the effectiveness of 'green firecrackers', which were introduced to reduce pollution. Despite a sharp 77.5% drop in stubble burning this year, Delhi's air quality plummeted to its worst post-Diwali level in five years on Tuesday morning. The city woke up on Tuesday to a thick blanket of smog, with PM2.5 levels averaging 488 micrograms per cubic metre, nearly 100 times higher than the World Health Organization's safe limit. On Diwali night, readings t ...Read More >
New Delhi: On Diwali and the day after, the capital recorded its worst PM2.5 levels of the year since Jan, analysis shows. Even on Wednesday, two days after the festival, some of its areas continued to choke on exponentially high particulate pollution. According to a study by Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), the city had an average PM2.5 concentration of 228 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³) on Diwali and 241 the next day. It was only on four days in Jan this year that PM2.5 ...Read More >
Gurgaon: The city's air quality showed a marked improvement on Wednesday, falling to 281 (poor) from 370 (very poor) a day earlier, thanks to stronger northwesterly winds that helped disperse pollutants lingering in the airshed since Diwali.According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), the improvement was driven by a temporary increase in wind speed, which helped clear the haze that blanketed the city after the festival that saw people burst crackers across the city much beyond the two-hou ...Read More >
Gurgaon: Farm fires have not peaked, yet cities in Haryana were India's main pollution hotspot over the last seven days, according to an analysis by Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).Between Oct 13 and 21, multiple Haryana cities, including Jind, Gurgaon, Dharuhera, Bahadurgarh, Rohtak and Narnaul repeatedly featured in India's most polluted top 10, which is based on data compiled by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).Pollution levels peaked Oct 21, the day after Diwali, whe ...Read More >
Under Stage II of GRAP, several curbs and intensified actions include daily mechanical or vacuum sweeping and water sprinkling on identified roads, preferably before peak traffic hours, to control dust. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has invoked Stage II of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across Delhi-NCR as the city's air quality slipped into the "very poor" category, with the AQI crossing 300 mark. The move came after the Sub-Committee on GRAP on Saturday reviewed th ...Read More >
12 Lucknow: The bursting of firecrackers during Diwali celebrations engulfed Lucknow in toxic air. During the live monitoring of air pollution levels, the PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentrations in the city's air reached the hazardous level of 500 micrograms per cubic meter.The city's air quality deteriorated from 'moderate' to 'severe' during Diwali night and post-Diwali celebrations on Tuesday. According to the live air quality monitoring stations' data available on the Central Pollution Control Board ...Read More >
Nagpur: The city's air quality dipped sharply during Diwali celebrations this year, with several localities slipping into the 'very poor' to 'severe' pollution zones between 8pm and 3am on Monday and Tuesday nights, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).Data from Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) revealed that particulate matter concentrations -- both PM2.5 and PM10 -- spiked dramatically in several areas. Ram Nagar and Mahal were the most affected, re ...Read More >
Delhi's air quality nosedived on Monday (October 20, 2025), the Deepavali afternoon, as pollution levels at 31 out of 38 monitoring stations redlined at 'very poor', and 'severe' at three stations. According to the SAMEER app by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi recorded an overall AQI of 334 at noon, compared to 339 at 9 a.m. Delhi CM Rekha Gupta appeals for green crackers as AQI crosses 300 Thirty-one monitoring stations reported air quality in the 'very poor' category with ...Read More >
New Delhi, Oct 22 (SocialNews.XYZ) Two days after Diwali, the air in Delhi and its neighbouring cities turned dangerously toxic, with the national capital recording an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 353, placing it firmly in the 'Very Poor' category. According to the latest Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) bulletin issued at 4 p.m. on Wednesday (October 22), Delhi's air was laden with PM2.5 particles -- the most harmful pollutant for human lungs. The situation was even more alarming in satel ...Read More >
From the alarming rise in Himalayan glacier melt impacting water security to the devastating cyclones battering coastal communities, India's environmental challenges demand urgent attention. Climate change, deforestation, and air pollution are no longer distant threats; they are daily realities shaping lives across the nation. We track crucial developments in environmental policy, highlighting government initiatives like the National Clean Air Programme and examining the impact of sustainable agriculture practices. Explore our coverage of biodiversity conservation efforts, the growing renewable energy sector, and the crucial role of citizen activism in environmental protection. Understand the intricate web connecting environmental degradation and socio-economic disparities, and discover how India is navigating the complexities of a changing climate. Stay informed, stay engaged, and become part of the solution. Explore the latest environmental news and analysis now.