Haryana worst hit by post-Deepavali air pollution as 10 cities from State among India’s 16 most polluted

Of the 16 cities with their air quality categorised as “severe” and “very poor” a day after Deepavali, as per the Central Pollution Control Board data released on Tuesday (October 21, 2025), ten are from Haryana, making it the State worst hit by the air pollution in the wake of the festival of lights.

Jind, around 130 km north-west of Delhi, fared the worst on CPCB’s daily Air Quality Index (AQI) for October 21, showing average of past 24 hours at 4 pm, with the index value of 421, categorised as the “severe”. It is the highest among the 271 cities that figures on the CPCB daily data. The air quality for the city fell drastically from 248 on October 20 afternoon, before the Diwali night.

It was closely followed by Dharuhera, a big industrial hub in Rewari, with the index value at 412. The air quality for the town recorded a fall of more than a hundred points from 305 on October 20, and was categorised as “severe” from “very poor” earlier.

Narnaul, another town in South Haryana, hit “very poor” category of air quality with the index value at 390.

The air quality in Haryana’s IT hub, Gurugram, too deteriorated from “poor” to “very poor” category with the fall in index value from 295 to 370 within 24 hours. Manesar, an automotive industry hub adjoining Gurugram city, also recorded “very poor” air quality at 320.

The air quality in Bhiwani and its neighbouring district Charkhi Dadri dropped considerably during the Diwali to record index values of 327 and 353 respectively, ending up in “very poor” category.

Bahadurgarh, Rohtak and Sirsa too recorded “very poor” air quality with the index values at 368, 376 and 353 respectively.