Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026: Indore, Jabalpur & Bhopal Among India’s Top 5 Clean Air Cities

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): In the National Clean Air Survey 2026, three cities of Madhya Pradesh has secured the place among top 5 cities of the country. Indore has received 2nd position, Jabalpur 3rd position and Bhopal 4th position.

However, the city’s air quality remains well above the prescribed national pollution limits. In the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026, Bhopal scored 192 points, compared with 191 points and sixth place last year.

Moreover, ward 60 of Bhopal was also selected in ward category of the survey.

A glittering programme was organised at Indira Environment Bhawan of Delhi to felicitate cities selected under the survey on Monday.

The awards were given by Chairman of National Green Tribunal, Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Secretary to Environment, forest and climate change Ministry Tanmay Kumar.

Ironically, while the Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s Additional Commissioner Aman Mishra, Mayor in Council R K Singh were receiving the awards on behalf of BMC in Delhi for clean air of Ward 60, the entire city including the roads of awarded ward were filled with dust and the AQI of TT Nagar was showing “poor”.

On Monday afternoon, 100s of commuters near New Market and TT Nagar areas seen struggling with dust.

In the category of cities with more than 10 lakh population, Indore and Jabalpur have been felicitated. Furthermore, Gwalior secured 39th place in the survey in the category of mega cities with more than 10 lakh population.

In the category of cities with population of 3 lakh till 10 lakh, Ujjain grabbed 16th position and Sagar came on 21th place. In the category of cities with less than 3 lakh population, Dewas clinched 7th place.

Notably, Union Environment, forest and climate change ministry conducted the survey among 130 cities of the country under various parameters and issued the ranking.

Despite the improvement, the Bhopal ’s annual average PM10 concentration remains significantly above the national standard.

PM10 levels declined from 113 micrograms per cubic metre in 2023-24 to 110 micrograms in 2024-25, a reduction of around 3%. However, the figure is still nearly 83% above the national annual standard of 60 micrograms.