New Delhi: India is planning a major expansion of its air and water quality monitoring infrastructure as environmental pollution emerges as a growing public health concern.
The government has proposed a financial outlay of ₹1,091 crore in the budget for 2026-27 to strengthen monitoring and implementation of pollution control measures across the air, water and noise pollution categories.
As part of the plan outlined in the budget documents, 1,046 new air quality monitoring stations are to be added to the existing network of 2,011 stations. In addition, 89 new monitoring stations will be set up to address river pollution. The expansion is aimed at improving the assessment of pollution levels, particularly in cities with populations above 100,000, while also enhancing data accuracy and coverage in rural areas.
According to experts, air, water and noise monitoring stations are essential to accurately measure pollution levels and track changes over time. Continuous monitoring helps protect public health by enabling early warnings and timely interventions, especially in densely populated and vulnerable areas.
“Currently, air quality monitoring in India is largely limited to urban centres, providing only a partial understanding of pollution dynamics. Expanding monitoring networks across both urban and rural areas would enable identification of pollution sources beyond city boundaries and capture the influence of regional and transboundary emissions,” said Vibha Dhawan, director general, The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri).
In many Indian cities, regional background sources contribute significantly to ambient air pollution levels. Improved spatial and temporal data would strengthen regulatory compliance through better source attribution and targeted enforcement, she said. The availability of high-resolution data would enable better training, validation, and calibration of forecasting models, reducing uncertainties and improving the accuracy of pollution episode predictions. This would support timely, preventive interventions and more coordinated, science-based environmental governance, Dhawan added.
To improve monitoring of noise pollution control measures, the government also plans to add 144 stations to the current network of 226 noise monitoring stations.
The FY26 budget had allocated of ₹853.9 crore, but the status and scale of implementation on the ground remain unclear.
Pollution, especially air pollution, is a serious cause of concern for India, as it directly threatens public health, economic productivity, and long-term development. Almost all Indian cities are affected by it. The State of Global Air 2025 report, released in October last year by US-based Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, warns that air pollution is silently undermining the nation’s health—damaging not only lungs and hearts, but also impairing brain function and aggravating chronic diseases. With nearly two million deaths in 2023 attributed to air pollution, India continues to shoulder one of the highest pollution-related disease burdens globally.
“Air pollution in Delhi has become one of the gravest public health challenges, especially in the winter months when smog and toxic haze engulf the city. The sources are diverse—vehicular emissions, industrial activities, construction dust, waste burning, crop residue burning, and unfavorable weather conditions,” said Tanu Jindal, director, Amity Institute of Environmental Toxicology, Amity University, Noida.
On 21 January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, economist and Harvard university professor Gita Gopinath said that air pollution was a far bigger threat to India’s economy than any tariff. Gopinath cited a 2022 World Bank report that estimates air pollution causes nearly 1.7 million deaths in India every year. That figure accounts for almost 18% of all deaths in the country.
Expanding monitoring networks ensures wider coverage, including rural regions, leading to more informed planning and sustainable environmental management. The expanded monitoring infrastructure is intended to improve the accuracy, coverage and effectiveness of pollution control interventions, particularly in urban areas, and strengthen evidence-based environmental governance.
As outlined in the budget documents, the government will, under its air pollution control initiatives, monitor the implementation of mitigation measures through an expanded national network. As a result, 130 cities across India are targeted to achieve PM10 reductions in line with their annual action plans.
For water pollution control, monitoring efforts will cover 5,000 existing water quality stations, with 89 additional stations planned. These measures aim to support the reduction of polluted river stretches. By the end of 2026-27, water quality monitoring is expected to cover a total of 622 rivers across the country. Enhanced real-time monitoring is aimed at identifying polluted river stretches, supporting timely corrective measures and improving coordination among implementing agencies, even as outcome targets for reduction in polluted stretches remain difficult to quantify.
Noise pollution monitoring will also see significant expansion. The current network of 226 noise monitoring stations will be augmented by 144 new stations. This is expected to extend noise monitoring coverage to 36 new million-plus cities. The overall objective is to achieve reduction in noise levels.
According to the 2025 Lancet Countdown Report, the monetized value of the lives lost prematurely to air pollution in India is close to $339 billion, or 9.5% of the country’s GDP.
An analysis of air quality from 2015 to 2025 by research firm Climate Trends states that no major Indian city recorded ‘good’ or safe Air Quality Index (AQI) levels at any point during the decade, highlighting the persistent and structural nature of India’s air pollution crisis. The study was released in November 2025.
The data states that Delhi remained the most polluted city throughout the decade. The data indicates that even a significant reduction in farm fires in 2025 failed to bring meaningful improvement in the capital’s air quality, underscoring the dominant role of local pollution sources combined with unfavourable meteorological conditions in driving severe winter smog.
On Monday at 2.51 PM, Delhi recorded AQI at 213. As per AQI classification, a reading between 0 and 50 is ‘good’, 51 to 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 to 200 ‘moderate’, 201 to 300 ‘poor’, 301 to 400 ‘very poor’ and 401 to 500 ‘severe’.
According to the Climate Trends study, other cities, including Lucknow, Varanasi and Ahmedabad, consistently recorded high and unhealthy AQI levels over the ten-year period. While cities such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh and Visakhapatnam showed relatively lower pollution levels, their AQI readings largely remained in the ‘moderate’ category, which is still considered unsafe for prolonged exposure.
Among major metros, Bengaluru emerged as the cleanest city; however, its AQI levels also failed to enter the ‘good’ category, indicating that even comparatively better-performing cities are falling short of health-based standards.
The analysis shows some improvement in air quality in select cities after 2020, but none came close to achieving healthy air conditions. In Delhi, the persistence of severe pollution has been aggravated by the absence of rainfall and weak western disturbances, which have reduced natural pollutant dispersion and accelerated early smog formation during winter months.
