Substantial mortality and morbidity occur in the IGP, and the number of air pollution–related deaths is approximately equally divided between urban and rural areas. In the peak fire season, the mean relative effects of rural biomass burning are estimated at 30% of emission levels measured in Delhi. Moreover, rural areas considerably contribute to pollution levels through local wheat and rice stubble burning, municipal waste burning, forest fires, coal-fired factories, and other sources of rural emissions. High population density, agricultural and industrial activities, and dispersal of urban pollution to nearby rural areas, and vice versa, lead to air pollution being a public health problem in both urban and rural parts of the IGP.
For instance, in the Indian part of the IGP, the annual mean PM2.5 concentration is above 100 μg/m 3, which is higher than that in India overall (83 μg/m 3), and more than 10-fold the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) recommended limit for healthy air (10 μg/m 3). Pollution levels in the IGP are even higher than those in the study region in general. Our study focuses on air pollution in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), which stretches across Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Pakistan. In 2019, a total of 980,000 deaths in India, 114,000 deaths in Pakistan, 74,000 deaths in Bangladesh, and 18,000 deaths in Nepal were attributable to air pollution. Overall, 26.2% of all disease-adjusted life years lost to air pollution globally are estimated to occur in India alone. The elevated levels of air pollution and the large number of exposed people result in significant air pollution–related mortality and morbidity in South Asia. In cross-country comparisons of fine particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5), Bangladesh has emerged as the country with the highest population-weighted levels, Pakistan has the second highest levels, India has the third highest levels, and Nepal has the 12th highest levels.
South Asia is experiencing some of the highest levels of ambient air pollution globally.
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