Bengaluru places 32nd among 48 large cities in clean-air survey

Bengaluru scored 152.6 points and ranked 32nd among 48 cities with populations above 10 lakh in the Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2026.

The city trailed Mumbai, placed 28th with 160.8 points, and Hyderabad, which ranked 19th with 174.2. It finished ahead of Chennai, at 35th with 147.7 points.

For Bengaluru residents, the ranking offers a comparison of the city’s clean-air efforts with other large urban centres, rather than a reading of day-to-day air quality. The survey placed the city in Category I, for cities with populations above 10 lakh.

Lucknow led the category with 198 points, followed by Indore with 197 and Jabalpur with 195. Madurai ranked last among the 48 cities, scoring 132.1.

Bengaluru also appeared in Karnataka’s state-level ward awards list through Koramangala_W151, in the category for wards with populations above 30,000. That list did not assign national ranks to Karnataka’s ward entries.

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced the awards at its Swachh Vayu Diwas 2026 event in Delhi.