Byrnihat, consistently India’s most polluted city since 2023, seems to be caught between two States.
An industrial town straddling the Assam-Meghalaya boundary, Byrnihat is about 30 km from Assam’s principal city Guwahati and 70 km from Meghalaya’s capital Shillong. The town is also the gateway to Shillong, a popular hill station.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma suggested the Meghalaya part of Byrnihat could be getting a bad name because of industrial units in Assam.
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On Thursday, he told the 60-member State Assembly that the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB) found Byrnihat’s air quality to be satisfactory compared to “poor to very poor” recorded by an ambient air quality monitoring station installed in the Central Academy for State Forest Service across the interstate boundary in Assam.
“This indicates that the major sources of air pollution may be attributed to industrial and other activities on the Assam side,” the Chief Minister said, pointing out that the Assam part of Byrnihat sports 20 “red category” industries while the Meghalaya part has five.
The red category refers to sectors with a high pollution potential.
“As directed by the National Green Tribunal and the Central Pollution Control Board, the Assam Pollution Control Board has prepared an action plan. Adequate measures are being taken to restore and improve the environmental quality of the Byrnihat area of Assam,” he said.
Calling for collaboration between the two States to address the environmental crisis in Byrnihat, Mr. Sangma countered the World Air Quality Report 2024 released by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company.
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According to the report, Byrnihat recorded an average PM2.5 concentration of 128.2 micrograms per cubic metre or µg/m3. PM stands for particulate matter, referring to a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets suspended in the air.
Mr. Sangma said data generated from four manual ambient air quality monitoring stations of the MSPCB at Byrnihat showed an average PM2.5 concentration of 50.1 µg/m3 for 2024.
“MSPCB’s data from January to March 2025 also revealed the air quality index of Byrnihat was satisfactory,” he said, claiming the State government was trying to make the town more breathable by conducting surprise inspections at the industrial units.
