WHO report does not give right picture: Environmentalists

Environmentalists on May 13 sounded caution over the latest WHO report, which showed that Delhi was not the most polluted city as per 2013-14 data, saying it does not give the right picture.

Greenpeace India campaigner Sunil Dahiya said the 2014 WHO report, under which Delhi earned the tag of being the most polluted city, was based on data of 2013 from six monitoring stations while the new report records data from 10 stations.

"If anybody is saying that there is improvement in Delhi's air quality, then it will be wrong as you are taking the data for the same year but at more places," Dahiya said.

Referring to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's statement "congratulating" people over the findings of the report, Sunita Narain of Centre for Science and Environment said people rush to take credits "where it's not due." "This data is comparing 2012 to 2014. This is not of the current Chief Minister's period," she said, noting that the data was two-year old.

Dahiya also said there could have been no major improvement as there were no major steps taken by Centre or Delhi government during the 2013-14 period based on which WHO compiled its data.

He said claiming that air pollution situation in Delhi has improved would be wrong as the base years for both the WHO reports, 2016 and 2014, were almost similar "so the question of improvement does not arise as it was the same air quality at the same place with more stations." Emphasising that the current situation may be "different", CSE's Anumita Roychowdhury said,"....The pollution is not getting worse but the levels are still very high. Yes, the current situation can be different." According to a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report 2016 based on data collected between 2008 and 2013, and in case of Delhi based on 2013-14, the national capital was the 11th most-polluted city while four other Indian cities - Gwalior (2), Allahabad (3), Patna (6) and Raipur (7) - figured in the top seven cities with worst air pollution.