New Study Finds 40% of India’s Districts Have No Air Quality Monitoring as Gaps Persist Beyond Major Cities

2026-03-31 07:00 Reseach

One in ten agglomerations with over 3 lakh residents still lacks any government air quality monitor

New Delhi, 31st March 2026 – India has built one of the largest air-quality monitoring systems in the Global South, but large parts of the country still remain “data blind”, according to a new nationwide analysis of air quality data accessibility by Airvoice. The study finds that around 40% of India’s districts have no government-operated air quality monitoring station at all, leaving millions without reliable, real-time information on the air they breathe.

The report titled Air Quality Data Accessibility in India: Distribution, Gaps, and Network Correlations, analyses the spread and performance of India’s three main monitoring systems - the manual National Air Monitoring Programme (NAMP), the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring (CAAQM) network, and the SAFAR system - using official datasets up to 2025.

Big metros well covered, but rest of India lags

The study confirms that major metropolitan regions such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata have the densest monitoring coverage, with dozens of stations and access to real-time data. States like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal now host the largest networks in the country, each operating more than 100 stations across different programmes.

However, beyond these urban hubs, the picture changes sharply. Many medium-sized cities and large districts with populations in the millions have only one or two stations or none at all. Several highly populated districts, including parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, remain either poorly monitored or completely outside the real-time monitoring network.

At the level of urban agglomerations, most large urban clusters have at least one monitoring station. However, about one in ten clusters with populations over 300,000 - based on UN WUP 2025 estimates, still do not have a government air quality monitor, highlighting ongoing gaps even in major urban areas across India.

Continuous monitoring still uneven

India’s continuous, real-time monitoring network (CAAQM) has expanded rapidly over the past decade and now includes more than 540 stations across nearly 300 cities. This has significantly improved public access to real-time air quality data in many regions.

Yet, the study shows that several states and Union Territories including Lakshadweep, Goa, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu still have no continuous monitoring at all, relying only on slower, manual systems whose results are not available in real time. Ladakh lacks even a manual monitoring network, leaving the region with no air quality monitoring of any kind.

Even where stations exist, reliability is an issue. Only about half of continuous monitoring stations provide consistently stable data, while a significant minority suffer from long outages, frequent interruptions, or incomplete reporting, limiting their usefulness for public health alerts and policy action.

It should be noted that these figures are based on 2025 data. Performance in 2024 was slightly more robust. In 2025, while 50% of stations remained fully stable, an additional 20% maintained acceptable operational levels (operating 75-90% of the time). Given this, a more nuanced perspective on data reliability is warranted.

Pollution levels don’t always match monitoring density

One of the key findings is that monitoring stations are not always located where pollution is worst. At the state and district level, the correlation between PM2.5 pollution levels and the number of monitoring stations remains only moderate, meaning some highly polluted areas still lack adequate real-time coverage, while some less polluted regions are better monitored.

Large parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, among the most polluted and densely populated regions in the country, continue to show significant gaps in continuous monitoring, especially outside major city centres.

Call for expansion beyond big cities

The report concludes that while India has made remarkable progress in expanding its air quality monitoring infrastructure, the next phase must focus on medium-sized cities, peripheral districts, and currently unmonitored regions to ensure equitable access to real-time air quality information.

It also highlights the need to improve the operational reliability of existing stations and to make air quality information more hyperlocal and user-friendly, so citizens can take timely decisions to protect their health.

“India has made monumental strides in building its monitoring infrastructure, establishing itself as a leader in the Global South,” said Vitalii Matiunin, CEO of Airvoice. “However, our study reveals that physical stations are only one part of the equation. We see a critical gap: automated monitoring remains unavailable in several states, and even where infrastructure exists, significant data is lost due to technical downtime. While expanding the network remains important, we must now equally focus on ensuring data stability and developing actionable services. Only then can this data empower citizens with forecasting and support authorities in making evidence-based urban planning decisions.”

Read the Full Report — Air Quality Data Accessibility in India: Distribution, Gaps, and Network Correlations.