Lahore Ranked World’s Most Polluted City as AQI Hits Hazardous Levels

Lahore recorded an Air Quality Index reading of 590 on Monday, ranking as the world’s most polluted major city on the live global platform IQAir.

The live ranking for 9am to 10am on November 9 placed the Pakistani city at the top of the list, more than three times higher than the second-ranked city, Dawn reported. Ulaanbaatar followed with an index of 177, Delhi with 174, Kolkata with 173, and Sarajevo with 170. A separate historical reading on the platform displayed an hourly index of 647 for Lahore during the same period, placing the air in the hazardous category.

Pollution levels varied sharply across different neighbourhoods.

Station rankings showed Allama Iqbal Town recording an index of 1,033, while the CERP Office logged 864 and Burki Road Paragon reached 748, according to Dawn.

The smog crisis extended across Pakistan’s Punjab province. Raiwind recorded an index of 688, Multan reached 655, and Faisalabad hit 600, placing multiple cities in the hazardous category. An international environmental monitoring website reported that Nankana Sahib recorded an alarming reading of 685, Dera Ghazi Khan reached 611, and Jhang registered 498.

The deterioration followed a provincial government warning issued on November 8. The report predicted that smoke from Diwali fireworks in neighbouring Indian Punjab, crop-residue burning, and easterly winds would aggravate air pollution in Lahore within five to 13 hours.

The provincial government’s report recorded 2,347 incidents of crop-residue burning in Indian Punjab up to November 4, with 46 per cent concentrated in Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, and Amritsar.

Satellite data showed agricultural fire activity on both sides of the border. An analysis by Hamari Hawa using NASA’s VIIRS satellite data recorded 13,241 fire detections in Pakistani Punjab compared with 3,158 in Indian Punjab between October 1 and 29, with 92 per cent located on farmland.

The Environment Protection Agency Punjab reported 679 agricultural fire incidents across the province, stating that 650 had been extinguished through coordinated operations. The agency deployed specialised night squads, drones, tractor-mounted fire bowsers, and Quick Response Units to agricultural hotspots.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Meteorological Department forecast dry weather across most of Punjab, warning of persistent smog at isolated places.