Haryana’s fight against air pollution remains an uphill task, with cities in the National Capital Region (NCR) and industrial towns witnessing the highest number of unhealthy air days over the past three years despite efforts under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
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The Air Quality Index (AQI) data tabled by the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change in the Lok Sabha revealed that one of the state’s most populous cities, Gurugram, emerged as the state’s most polluted city from 2023 to 2025, recording 458 “bad air days”— days when air quality remained in the poor, very poor, or severe categories.
The data shows that during these years, Gurugram remained among the state’s most polluted cities, recording 145 bad air days in 2023, 164 in 2024 and 149 in 2025, taking its three-year total to 458 days—the highest in Haryana.
The findings suggest that during this period, the pollution profile of Haryana has remained largely unchanged despite implementation of city-specific action plans under the NCAP. The air pollution continues to remain a challenge in several urban and industrial areas, despite the state has made significant progress in tackling one of its major seasonal contributors—stubble burning.
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Charkhi Dadri recorded 278 bad air days during the period, narrowly ahead of industrial city of Ballabhgarh (277), while Dharuhera (270) and Bahadurgarh (269) also reported persistently high pollution levels.
Rohtak recorded 230 bad air days over the three years, while Sonepat recorded 213, indicating that unhealthy air remains a recurring challenge beyond Haryana’s immediate NCR districts.
The figures indicate that residents of several Haryana cities spent well over half of the last three years breathing unhealthy air, underscoring the persistent pollution burden across the state’s urban and industrial centres despite multiple clean-air initiatives.
The ministry classifies AQI into good (0-50), satisfactory (51-100), moderate (101-200), poor (201-300), very poor (301-400) and severe (above 400) categories. “Bad air days” represent the combined total of days falling in the poor, very poor and severe categories.
The latest data reflects a clear geographical pattern with Haryana’s NCR and industrial corridor continuing to dominate the state’s pollution map. Even as the severe AQI days remained relatively limited but majority of unhealthy air days across Haryana fell in the poor and very poor categories.
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According to the data, Haryana’s another NCR industrial city of Faridabad ranked second with 335 bad air days, though the city witnessed considerable fall in number of bad days declining from 129 in 2023 and 140 in 2024 to 66 in 2025, suggesting some improvement while still remaining among the state’s worst-affected cities.
