New Delhi, Feb 26 (.) India’s air pollution monitoring network failed to keep pace with the scale and complexity of the country’s pollution crisis, leaving nearly 85 per cent of the population outside the measurable range of real-time air quality data, according to the State of India’s Environment 2026 report released recently by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
The report highlighted that in a country of 1.4 billion people, where emissions and exposure levels vary widely across regions, only about 200 million people live within a 10-km radius of a continuous air quality monitoring station.
“Only 15 per cent of India’s population lives within 10 km of a continuous monitor. The remaining 1.2 billion people breathe outside any measurable range,” said Sharanjeet Kaur, deputy programme manager at CSE’s Urban Lab.
Experts from the Climate Think Tank noted that India currently operates two major air quality monitoring systems. The National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP), launched in 1984–85, relies on manual stations that measure pollution levels twice a week and provide long-term averages for limited pollutants. In contrast, Continuous Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) generate real-time, hourly data across multiple pollutants.
At present, the country has 562 real-time monitors spread across 294 cities and 966 manual stations in 419 cities and towns. However, the report pointed out that these numbers mask stark regional disparities.
“Entire districts, industrial belts and fast-growing peri-urban centres remain outside the monitoring grid,” Kaur said.
Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy) at CSE, said the monitoring gap reflects deeper inequities in environmental governance.
“Cities with multiple monitors can demonstrate progress, claim clean air funding and frame action plans. But hundreds of smaller towns, many facing comparable or even higher pollution, have no real-time data at all,” she said.
Among states and union Territories, Chandigarh has complete population coverage within a 10-km radius of real-time monitors, followed closely by Delhi, where only 3.5 per cent of residents fall outside measurable limits. Puducherry ranks third, with nearly half its area covered.
Large states show significant gaps despite having sizeable networks. In Maharashtra, monitoring stations are largely concentrated around Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, leaving vast regions unrepresented.
Coverage remains particularly poor in northern and eastern states. Only 13 per cent of Bihar’s population and 9 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s residents live within 10 km of a monitor, while West Bengal covers just 19 per cent of its population. Several densely populated districts, including Hooghly and Murshidabad, lack a single real-time monitoring station.
In the northeast, only Assam has multiple stations, while most other states operate one or two monitors each. Overall, more than 64 per cent of India’s 742 districts have no continuous air quality monitoring, the report states.
“This means India’s daily AQI updates and policy assessments are based on data from a small, urbanised slice of the country. For the rest, pollution is a lived reality, but not a recorded one,” Roychowdhury added.
The report recommended moving beyond a uniform monitoring approach toward a hybrid system combining regulatory-grade monitors, validated low-cost sensors and satellite-based datasets to improve spatial coverage.
It also calls for prioritising monitoring in high-exposure zones such as schools and hospitals, dynamically relocating stations as cities expand, and creating a unified national portal integrating air quality data from multiple agencies.
. MBJ RSA