Gurugram records worst January air pollution spell in four years

Official data shows the city’s average AQI hit 318 in the first three weeks, far higher than the same period in recent years.

The first three weeks of the year have seen one of the worst pollution spells recorded in Gurugram, with air quality remaining in the “very poor” category for 13 days, making it the worst opening stretch in the past four years, according to official data.

Morning walkers brave the chill and thick haze at Sector 11 near Mini Secretariat in Gurugram on Tuesday. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

Data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s Sameer App showed that the average air quality index (AQI) in Gurugram between January 1 and 21 stood at 318. This marks a sharp rise from an average AQI of 210 during the same period in 2025. In 2024, the average AQI for the first three weeks of January was 235, in 2023, it was 282, while it stood at 281 in 2022 and 251 in 2021. The last time air quality approached similar levels early in the year was in 2019, when the average AQI touched 291.

Of the 21 days this year, 13 fell in the “very poor” category, while seven of the remaining eight days recorded “poor” air quality. In contrast, the same period in 2025 saw 13 “poor” days and eight “moderate” days. A comparable early spell of “severe” and “very poor” air was last recorded in 2019, when AQI remained above 300 for 11 days, including two “severe” and nine “very poor” days.

As per CPCB norms, AQI is categorised as good (0–50), satisfactory (51–100), moderately polluted (101–200), poor (201–300), very poor (301–400) and severe (401–500), with higher values indicating greater health risks.

The findings come weeks after Gurugram finalised its clean air action plan for 2026, which aims to cut AQI by 10% to 178. The plan states that the city’s average AQI between 2021 and 2024 was 198.

“The city consistently ranks among India’s top 10 most polluted, and with air pollution the leading health risk in Haryana, policy-related exclusion weakens the very purpose of national clean air commitments,” said Dr Manoj Kumar, analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. He added that leaving Gurugram out of the revised National Clean Air Programme would be a serious oversight.

Earlier this week, Union minister for environment, forest and climate change Bhupender Yadav said all NCR cities should be included under the NCAP framework during a review meeting of action plans for Rohtak, Manesar, Panipat and Karnal.

Gurugram had also recorded its worst December air quality in eight years in 2025, with the average AQI touching 298, up from 236 in December 2024. Since 2018, the city has seen only 55 “moderate” and six “good” days in January out of 269 days when AQI stayed below 200.

On Wednesday, Gurugram’s AQI stood at 358 under the “very poor” category at around 4pm, as per the CPCB daily bulletin.