Choking on Change: Air Pollution in Indian Cities (2015–2020)

Sarvang Jain

India’s Pollution Crisis

  • Imagine stepping outside your home and breathing in air so dense with pollution, it’s like smoking 10 cigarettes a day — without lighting one.
  • For millions of Indians, this isn’t imagination. It’s reality.
  • PM2.5 is a fine particulate pollutant that causes severe respiratory and heart problems.
  • This story uncovers the real data behind the smog in Indian cities from 2015 to 2020.

Dataset Overview

  • Source: Rao (2020), Kaggle
  • 29,000+ daily records from multiple Indian cities
  • Key variables: PM2.5, AQI, and AQI Buckets
##                  City    n
## 1               Delhi 2007
## 2             Lucknow 1907
## 3             Chennai 1892
## 4           Hyderabad 1891
## 5           Bengaluru 1863
## 6               Patna 1537
## 7            Gurugram 1525
## 8           Ahmedabad 1381
## 9       Visakhapatnam 1232
## 10             Jaipur 1102
## 11           Amritsar 1093
## 12 Thiruvananthapuram 1070
## 13          Amaravati  892
## 14             Mumbai  784
## 15            Kolkata  759
## 16       Brajrajnagar  753
## 17            Talcher  741
## 18           Guwahati  501
## 19         Jorapokhar  379
## 20         Coimbatore  378
## 21         Chandigarh  289
## 22             Bhopal  280
## 23           Shillong  246
## 24              Kochi  162
## 25          Ernakulam  158
## 26             Aizawl  111

Top Cities by Record Count

Monthly Pollution Patterns

AQI Category Distribution

Top Polluted Cities by AQI

Diwali Pollution Spike in Delhi

Key Findings

  • Delhi, Lucknow, and Kolkata have consistently high pollution levels.
  • Winter months (especially Nov–Jan) show the highest PM2.5 readings.
  • AQI data reveals a concerning number of “Poor” and “Very Poor” days.

References

  • Rao, R. (2020). Air Quality Data in India (2015–2020). Kaggle Dataset

-ggplot2 https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/