According to sources the WHO report said 14 of the world's 15 most polluted cities were in India which includes Delhi, Kanpur and Varanasi. Meanwhile when asked what helped in tackling pollution, a pollution control official in Tamilnadu said efforts aimed at improvisation were always prioritized and such measures bore fruit. An official said an "action plan" is being readied now to tackle air pollution better.
Accordingly measures being planned to tackle air pollution better include putting in place advanced gadgets in industrial premises to enable real time monitoring. Moreover such monitoring will help more in checking emissions which lead to air pollution. Further to a question on some real time air pollution (PM 2.5) data for Chennai pointing to pollution comparable to cities like Varanasi (PM 2.5/ 151/WHO data), he said it was "dynamic, and keeps changing all the time."
Moreover pollution levels in major cities of Tamilnadu like Chennai were
within the permissible range in respect of parameters including the PM 2.5 or
PM 10, the official said adding "it is much better when compared with
other cities like New Delhi." Similar was the case in respect of other
major cities like Coimbatore.
