Context
Recently, Lucknow ranked first among million-plus cities in Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026, followed by Indore and Jabalpur. The survey assesses cities primarily on measures undertaken to improve air quality, rather than merely comparing their absolute pollution levels.
Explanation
- Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan (SVS) is an initiative under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to assess urban action against air pollution.
- Cities are grouped by population: million-plus, 3–10 lakh, and below 3 lakh.
- Assessment covers measures such as road-dust control, solid-waste management, construction and demolition waste management, vehicular-emission reduction and industrial-pollution control.
- Reduction in Particulate Matter (PM10) concentration receives only 2.5% weightage, so a top rank does not necessarily mean that a city has the cleanest ambient air.
- Under NCAP, cities prepare City Action Plans to address locally important pollution sources.
- India’s annual ambient-air standard for PM10 is 60 µg/m³.
- Lucknow’s PM10 declined from about 250 µg/m³ in 2017–18 to 137 µg/m³, but it still exceeds the national standard.
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