Living In The Most Polluted City In The World

“Even if we close all our windows, doors and ventilators, the dust enters. We can’t dry our clothes outside, children can’t play outside, how much we might clean our house, there is just no respite from the dust.” Alin Syngkli, a homemaker, was talking about the effects of pollution, sitting on the stairs of her under-construction house in the Rajabagan area of Byrnihat.

Byrnihat, a small industrial town nestled on the border of Assam and Meghalaya, has been gaining attention this year after being declared ‘the most polluted metropolitan area in the world’ by the 2024 IQAir World Air Quality Report. The report published by Swiss firm IQAir from Steinach, Switzerland, earlier in March this year, said that Byrnihat recorded an annual average PM_2.5 concentration of 128.2 micrograms per cubic metre, far exceeding the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline of 5 micrograms per cubic metre. PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ are fine particulate matter, with PM_2.5 being particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometre or less, which are so fine that they can penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, causing serious health risks.

The state government’s estimates of the air quality, however, are different than the international report. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who is also in charge of the Forest and Environment Department, giving a statement on this issue during the Budget Session of Meghalaya State Assembly in March said that data from four ambient air quality monitoring stations operated by the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB) in Byrnihat shows that the annual average PM_2.5 concentration for the year 2024 is 50.1 micrograms per cubic metre. That’s less than half of the annual average reported by IQAir. He further said that MSPCB’s data indicated that the air quality between January and the first week of March in 2025 was recorded as “satisfactory”.

Byrnihat, geographically straddling two states, is just 20 kms from Guwahati, the largest city in Assam and 65 kms from Meghalaya’s capital, Shillong. It is one of the major industrial hubs in the region, with 39 industrial units in Assam and 41 in Meghalaya. In Meghalaya, the industries are located in an area called Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) in Ri-Bhoi district, while in Assam, they are mainly concentrated in Tamulkuchi of Kamrup (Metropolitan) district. Devesh Walia, Dean of School of Human and Environmental Sciences, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), told Mongabay India that industrial units in Byrnihat are the major contributors to pollution in the area. “This place became an industrial hub because of the connectivity advantage as well as the presence of the nearby Umtrew river. The topographical features, such as hills on both sides, blocked river channels and low-pressure zones which trap pollutants have all contributed to pollution here. Cement factories, coke factories, and distilleries are all located in a small area and along with environmental violations, pollution here is bound to rise.”

Sosthenes Sohtum, the MLA from Jirang constituency under which Byrnihat falls, is from National People’s Party (NPP), which is in power in Meghalaya. Sohtum, who lives in the Lum Nongthymmal area in Byrnihat tells Mongabay India that the pollution crisis in the area is real. “I am myself seeing the effects of pollution in my home, in the school of my children, on the roads, fields everywhere. Our government is serious about this issue and MSPCB has taken some serious steps in this regard.”

A tale of two pollution control boards

Being a border town makes things complicated for Byrnihat as it comes under the ambit of the pollution control board of two states.

R. Nainamalai, Chairman, MSPCB while speaking to media persons in Shillong, blamed Assam for the pollution and said that out of 41 industries on the Meghalaya side, only two industries fall in the Red category, which is the highest polluting category. But out of 39 industries on the Assam side, 20 are in the Red, with high pollution load and impact on the environment. The MSPCB chief also said that in Assam, the AQI reading at the start of the year, on January 26 was 341 (very poor), as recorded at the air quality monitoring station at the Central Academy for State Forest Service. But on the Meghalaya side, ‘satisfactory’ air quality levels were recorded at the four monitoring stations located at the industrial park EPIP, 15th Mile, 17th Mile and Khasi Killing.

Mongabay India reached out to Nainamalai but did not get a response at the time of publishing.

The Meghalaya pollution board also conducted surprise inspections at industrial units in EPIP earlier this year and discovered widespread violations of pollution norms, including heavy emissions from chimneys due to non-operation of pollution control devices, ineffective pollution control devices, and non-transmission of pipeline emission data. Subsequently, MSPCB shut down six factories and imposed fines on two.

The MSPCB has engaged the Council of Scientific Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), Kolkata for conducting an Emission Inventory and Source Apportionment study of Byrnihat which identifies and quantifies pollution sources. While the final report is yet to be published, the draft says that road dust is the highest contributor of PM₁₀ pollutants (5676.82 metric tonne), while industry is the biggest contributor of PM_2.5 (1575.21 metric tonne). Transport (tailpipe emissions) have also heavily contributed to pollution in the area, in the form of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

Meanwhile, Arup Kumar Misra, Chairman of Pollution Control Board of Assam, speaking to Mongabay India about the pollution scenario in Byrnihat, said, “Out of the 39 industries on our side (Assam), at least 10 have not put up pollution control devices despite repeated warnings. We recently had a meeting with the industrialists and told them that next time, we will have to shut down their factories.”

Misra mentioned that pollution control boards from both states will form a joint committee to deal with the pollution crisis in Byrnihat. “This committee will work sans any political interference and its goal will be to curb the pollution in Byrnihat.” Ganesh Chandra Dhal, an assistant professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Meghalaya told Mongabay India that vehicular pollution is also one of the main reasons behind the poor air quality of Byrnihat.

“Byrnihat serves as a transit point with NH-40 passing through it. There is continuous passing of heavy commercial vehicles through the area and many of these vehicles are very old and there is a lack of model emission control. The presence of unpaved roads aggravates road dust pollution,” said Dhal, who is conducting a study on the air pollution of Byrnihat.

Misra also added that apart from industrial and vehicular pollution, the cutting of hills in Meghalaya is a major factor contributing to pollution.

Pollution impacts farming and animals

At Byrnihat, Gulzar Hussain is packing his belongings on a tempo and getting ready to leave. Hussain, who had rented 15 bighas of land here for agriculture, said he was going back to his native village of Dokan Khaiti in Morigaon district of Assam. “I came here because I lost my land due to the flood in Assam. But here, pollution killed all my crops. I had to borrow ₹30,000. I am not expecting the situation to improve here and so I am going back to my village,” he said.

Mohd. Nazmul Haque, who had come from Baralimari village in Juria subdivision of Nagaon district of Assam three years ago has a similar story to tell. But unlike Gulzar, he plans to continue staying here.

Haque, who had grown cauliflower on 2.5 bighas of land said that pollutants from nearby factories assimilate on the crops and kill them. “When we took our vegetables to the market, nobody bought them. Their colour had become black because of pollution. So, the traders from Guwahati said that people will become sick if they consume this. We can’t blame them also. In fact, my family couldn’t eat those vegetables, and we had to buy ours from elsewhere. Every crop from vegetables to betel nuts is being affected.” he said.

The pollution impacted not only plants but animals as well. Hussain says, “I have six goats, but they have stopped eating grass. If they eat grass, they suffer from diarrhoea.”

Another farmer, Birendra Nath, had migrated to Byrnihat from Dharmanagar in Tripura more than three decades ago to practice farming, before the industrial hub came up.

Nath tells Mongabay India that while pollution has been there in Byrnihat, its severity has increased in the last seven to nine months. He identified two factories, a distillery and a beer manufacturing plant as the main culprits.

Brewing health risks

Phrangsyngkh Syngkli, who holds the position of Lyngdoh Raid, a customary clan head or representative of Nongkyllah clan in Byrnihat told Mongabay India that the locals of Byrnihat are facing several health issues and he attributes them to the pollution.

“Many people here have been suffering from respiratory ailments. Also, factories are dumping the industrial wastes in the Umtrew river in Byrnihat (known as Digaru in the Assam side) thus contaminating the water, which was a source of drinking water for the people here,” he said.

K.J. Peter, a teacher in Byrnihat for the last 25 years, says that the pollution is affecting young lungs. “Our students have complained of chest pain, breathing difficulties and skin rashes. Even the smell and loud sound which comes from factories is terrible. Students complain of headaches due to the smell and sound. It becomes very difficult to take classes,” he told Mongabay India, attributing all the health issues to the pollution.

Renowned oncologist and former director of B. Borooah Cancer Institute in Guwahati, Dr. Amal Kotoky said that industrial pollution can lead to cancer. “Dust particles from industries and automobile exhaustion have lead, carbon monoxide, ethelyn and long term exposure to these can lead to skin disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer,” he told Mongabay India.

Byrnihat on the Meghalaya side has one Primary Health Center (PHC) which caters to the entire region. Mongabay India tried to speak to the doctors there, but they denied a comment as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Mongabay India has reached out to the Meghalaya Health Secretary Sampath Kumar for permission to speak to the doctors but had not received it at the time of publishing.

But health impacts of the pollution have been documented. As per a recent report published in Reuters, the number of respiratory infection cases in Byrnihat has risen from 2,082 in 2022 to 3,681 in 2024.

While the locals say that the care provided in the PHC is good, the facilities are not adequate to handle a brewing health crisis.

A source working in the PHC, speaking to Mongabay India on condition of anonymity said, “Currently we are a six bedded facility – three maternity and three general. Right now, construction is going on to upgrade the PHC to a Community Health Center (CHC). When it becomes a CHC, bed numbers will increase to 30. We deal with every case from maternity, paediatrics, old age ailments, accidents, burn injuries etc. If a case is critical, we refer it to the Civil Hospital at the district headquarters in Nongpoh.”

The Lyngdoh Raid Syngkli said that the PHC dispensary doesn’t keep adequate stock of medicines and people have to buy from private pharmacies. Also, the PHC doesn’t have diagnostic facilities like X-ray, ultrasound etc. and patients generally go to the nearby North East Cancer Hospital and Research Institute on the Assam side.

M. Ahmed, owner of Poly Medical in Byrnihat told Mongabay India that there are around 10-12 private pharmacies in the town. “People mainly buy medicines for diarrhoea, cough, fever, gas, acidity etc. While face masks definitely help (protect from pollution), people here generally don’t buy masks.”

On the Assam side of Byrnihat, while there is a government dispensary, people have access to better healthcare due to close proximity to Guwahati.

“The industries in Byrnihat have not developed the life of people here. In fact, it has deteriorated due to pollution. Many of the locals go to work in the factories but they are only given menial jobs. There are educated people in Byrnihat capable of holding good positions, but they were never given those opportunities,” says Alin Syngkli.

When asked if she contemplates leaving the place if things become worse in the future, she says, “Not all of us can afford to go. I think it is high time that the government does something to solve this issue. Because this is not the Byrnihat I want to leave behind for my children.”

(Published under Creative Commons from Mongabay India. Read the original article here)