2025 sees Delhi’s best air quality in 8 years: Min

New Delhi: Delhi recorded its most significant improvement in air quality in nearly a decade in 2025, with particulate pollution levels dropping to their lowest averages in eight years, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said on Thursday, attributing the gains to sustained, science-based interventions by the state government.

According to official data, the annual average PM2.5 level fell to 96 micrograms per cubic metre in 2025 from 104 in 2024, while PM10 declined to 197 micrograms per cubic metre from 212 last year. The capital also logged nearly 200 days with an Air Quality Index (AQI) below 200, marking a 15 per cent improvement over recent years and the best performance since 2018, excluding the Covid-impacted period of 2020.

“Under Hon’ble Chief Minister Smt Rekha Gupta’s leadership, Delhi’s mandate has clearly translated into making clean air a priority. The results of 2025 show that science-led action delivers,” Sirsa said. Officials said Delhi recorded 79 days with ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory’ air quality and only eight days in the ‘severe’ category (AQI above 400), the lowest

such count in recent years. The January–November average AQI stood at 187, the best in eight years.

The government credited the improvement to coordinated action across sectors. Dust pollution was tackled through mechanised road sweeping, deployment of anti-smog guns, mist sprayers on busy corridors, and stricter enforcement at construction sites. Vehicular emissions were addressed through the ‘No PUC, No Fuel’ policy, checks on non-compliant vehicles, and penalties on uncovered construction and demolition waste trucks. Industrial pollution controls were tightened through ward-level surveys and closures of non-compliant units, while waste management efforts were intensified with increased garbage lifting and bio-mining of legacy waste at landfills. Innovative measures such as cloud seeding trials and technology challenges were also initiated.

“From nearly 200 days under AQI 200 to a sharp reduction in severe pollution episodes, our multi-pronged push has shown results, but this is only the beginning,” Sirsa said, adding that the government would expand enforcement under the Graded Response Action Plan and scale up technology-driven solutions in 2026. In the last 24 hours alone, authorities

issued over 12,000 challans for vehicular pollution, underlining what officials described as an “unrelenting” clean air drive.