Air Quality Tracker Initiative: 2021-22 Reports

September 14, 2022

The Urban Lab of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) continued its Air Quality Tracker Initiative to document and communicate the threat of heightened air pollution during the winter season of 2021-22. This is a compendium of all 10 reports published between October 2021 and March 2022. The reports use data from 326 official stations under the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS) spread across 161 cities in 26 states and union territories.

The initiative was started in winter of 2020 by the Urban Lab to understand the nature of air pollution in the cities and various regions of India and how it has been impacted by the extraordinary pandemic year of 2020 that has witnessed one of the biggest disruptions in recent times. This initiative is designed to provide quick but empirically robust analysis to address some of the basic public curiosities related to air pollution in cities.

The initiative leverages publicly available granular real time data (15-minute averages) from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) official online portal Central Control Room for Air Quality Management.