Reports
North India Fact Sheet
October 2019
More than 480 million people, or about 40 percent of India’s population, reside in the seven states and union
territories comprising the bulk of the Indo-Gangetic Plain region of north India – Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi,
Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal (Figure 1). Though the Indo-Gangetic Plain’s particulate
pollution is exacerbated by geologic and meteorological factors, the AQLI’s dust- and sea salt-removed fine
particulate matter (PM2.5) data imply that human activity plays a key role in generating the severe particulate
pollution that these residents face. That is likely due to the fact that the region’s population density is more than
three times that of the rest of the country, meaning more pollution from vehicular, residential, and agricultural
sources. A denser population also means more human lives are impacted by each pollution source. Across India,
reducing particulate pollution to the World Health Organization’s guideline of 10 μg/m3 would increase the
national average life expectancy by 4.3 years. In north India, there would be outsize impacts of policy that reduces
air pollution to meet Indian or International norms.
