Two-year-old Sumaiya Ansari, a resident of India’s Byrnihat town, ranked the world’s most polluted metropolitan space by Swiss Group IQAir, was battling respiration issues for a number of days earlier than she was hospitalised in March and given oxygen help.
She is amongst many residents of the commercial town on the border of the northeastern Assam and Meghalaya states – in any other case recognized for his or her lush, pure magnificence – inflicted by diseases that medical doctors say are seemingly linked to excessive publicity to air pollution.
Byrnihat’s annual common PM2.5 focus in 2024 was 128.2 micrograms per cubic meter, in line with IQAir, over 25-times the extent beneficial by the WHO.
PM2.5 refers to particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or much less in diameter that may be carried into the lungs, inflicting lethal illnesses and cardiac issues.
“It was very scary, she was breathing like a fish,” mentioned Abdul Halim, Ansari’s father, who introduced her dwelling from hospital after two days.
According to authorities knowledge, the variety of respiratory an infection instances in the area rose to three,681 in 2024 from 2,082 in 2022.
“Ninety percent of the patients we see daily come either with a cough or other respiratory issues,” mentioned Dr. J Marak of Byrnihat Primary Healthcare Centre.
Residents say the poisonous air additionally causes skin rashes and eye irritation, damages crops, and restricts routine duties like drying laundry open air.
“Everything is covered with dust or soot,” mentioned farmer Dildar Hussain.
ritics say Byrnihat’s scenario displays a broader development of air pollution plaguing not simply India’s cities, together with the capital Delhi, but additionally its smaller cities as breakneck industrialisation erodes environmental safeguards.
Unlike different components of the nation that face air pollution each winter, nonetheless, Byrnihat’s air high quality stays poor by means of the 12 months, authorities knowledge signifies.
Home to about 80 industries – lots of them extremely polluting – specialists say the issue is exacerbated in the town by different components like emissions from heavy automobiles, and its “bowl-shaped topography”.
“Sandwiched between the hilly terrain of Meghalaya and the plains of Assam, there is no room for pollutants to disperse,” mentioned Arup Kumar Misra, chairman of Assam’s air pollution management board.
The town’s location has additionally made an answer more durable, with the states shifting blame to one another, mentioned a Meghalaya authorities official who didn’t need to be named.
Since the discharge of IQAir’s report in March, nonetheless, Assam and Meghalaya have agreed to type a joint committee and work collectively to fight Byrnihat’s air pollution.
Published – April 22, 2025 07:58 am IST
