Overview

• Delhi breached the eight-hour ozone standard on all 92 days from March through May, making it the worst-affected city in the analysis.
• Bengaluru recorded 45 exceedance days, a 29 percent increase over last summer’s count.
• Mumbai and Kolkata registered substantial improvements with 32 and 22 exceedance days respectively, marking declines of 42 percent and 45 percent.
• Chennai logged 15 days of ozone exceedance after zero breaches last year, while Hyderabad saw a 55 percent drop to 20 exceedance days.
• The report warns of acute respiratory and cardiovascular impacts from ground-level ozone and calls for expanded eight-hour monitoring plus targeted cuts in NOₓ, VOC and carbon monoxide emissions.