BENGALURU: None of the Indian cities complies with standards prescribed by the World Health Organization(WHO) on air quality, stated a report of Greenpeace, global NGO working on environmental issues.

Also, very few cities in south India even comply with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) standards on air quality. Karnataka, like many other cities, has not met the WHO and the National Ambient Air Quality standards.

Claiming that the information it has gathered through online reports and RTI are damning, the organization has urged the governments to institute robust monitoring of air quality across the country and make the data public. "This should be coupled with a health advisory and 'red alerts' for bad air days, which would enable the public to take decisions to protect their health and the environment and automatically institute measures to protect citizens. They include shutting down schools, traffic reduction measures, closing down power plants and industries etc," the report 'Airpocalypse' stated.

The report, which has assessed air quality in 168 cities across 24 states and Union territories, pointed out that fossil fuels are one of the main culprits for deteriorating air quality.

The pollution levels in cities in Karnataka showed that particulate matter-10 (PM10) was higher than the annual average of 60 g/m3 (60 micrograms per cubic metre) as prescribed under the US National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The levels of PM10 in the atmosphere in Davanagere, Bengaluru, Tumakuru, Riachur and Hubbali were at 109, 119, 118, 87 and 80 g/m3 for 2015-2016.

"Air pollution is no more just the problem of northern India and Delhi, Bengaluru and many other urban centres in south India are breathing hazardous levels of pollutants. It's time that people in south India rise up to demand and contribute towards their right to clean air. They need to move away from polluting fossil fuel-based society to clean and greener energy and transport system. An aggressive shift towards public transport is the need of the hour along with taking steps to make the air breathable," Greenpeace campaigner Sunil Dahiya said.

While urging the Centre to provide real-time data on air quality, Greenpeace said: "This data must be used as a basis to fine-tune pollution reduction strategies."

The government must improve public transport, reduce use of petrol/diesel vehicles, get polluting vehicles off the roads, introduce higher fuel standards (Bharat VI) and enforce stricter emission regulations, it added.