BYRNIHAT, India: Two-year-old Sumaiya Ansari, a resident of India’s Byrnihat town which is ranked the world’s most polluted metropolitan area by Swiss Group IQAir, was battling breathing problems for several days before she was hospitalized in March and given oxygen support.
She is among many residents of the industrial town on the border of the northeastern Assam and Meghalaya states — otherwise known for their lush, natural beauty — inflicted by illnesses that doctors say are likely linked to high exposure to pollution.
Byrnihat’s annual average PM2.5 concentration in 2024 was 128.2 micrograms per cubic meter, according to IQAir, over 25 times the level recommended by the WHO.
PM2.5 refers to particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter that can be carried into the lungs, causing deadly diseases and cardiac problems.
“It was very scary, she was breathing like a fish,” said Abdul Halim, Ansari’s father, who brought her home from hospital after two days.
According to government data, the number of respiratory infection cases in the region rose to 3,681 in 2024 from 2,082 in 2022.
“Ninety percent of the patients we see daily come either with a cough or other respiratory issues,” said Dr. J Marak of Byrnihat Primary Healthcare Center.
Residents say the toxic air also causes skin rashes and eye irritation, damages crops, and restricts routine tasks like drying laundry outdoors.
“Everything is covered with dust or soot,” said farmer Dildar Hussain.
Critics say Byrnihat’s situation reflects a broader trend of pollution plaguing not just India’s cities, including the capital Delhi, but also its smaller towns as breakneck industrialization erodes environmental safeguards.
Unlike other parts of the country that face pollution every winter, however, Byrnihat’s air quality remains poor through the year, government data indicates.
Home to about 80 industries — many of them highly polluting — experts say the problem is exacerbated in the town by other factors like emissions from heavy vehicles, and its “bowl-shaped topography.”
“Sandwiched between the hilly terrain of Meghalaya and the plains of Assam, there is no room for pollutants to disperse,” said Arup Kumar Misra, chairman of Assam’s pollution control board.
The town’s location has also made a solution tougher, with the states shifting blame to each other, said a Meghalaya government official who did not want to be named.
Since the release of IQAir’s report in March, however, Assam and Meghalaya have agreed to form a joint committee and work together to combat Byrnihat’s pollution.
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Indians battle respiratory issues, skin rashes in world’s most polluted town
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Indians battle respiratory issues, skin rashes in world’s most polluted town
- According to government data, the number of respiratory infection cases in the region rose to 3,681 in 2024 from 2,082 in 2022
US heading to ‘authoritarianism’, warns Human Rights Watch
- HRW: US President Donald Trump has shown ‘blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations’
WASHINGTON: Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday that President Donald Trump was turning the United States into an authoritarian state as democracy declines globally to its lowest ebb in four decades.
Trump’s return to the White House has intensified a “downward spiral” on human rights that was already under pressure from Russia and China, the New York-based advocacy and research group said in its annual report.
“The rules-based international order is being crushed,” HRW said.
In the United States, the group said, Trump has shown “blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations.”
In descriptions that would have been unthinkable in the US section of its previous annual reports, the group pointed to the deployment of masked, armed agents — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency — which has carried out “hundreds of unnecessarily violent and abusive raids.”
“The administration’s racial and ethnic scapegoating, domestic deployment of National Guard forces in pretextual power grabs, repeated acts of retaliation against perceived political enemies and former officials now critical of him, as well as attempts to expand the coercive powers of the executive and neuter democratic checks and balances, underpin a decided shift toward authoritarianism in the US,” the report said.
Human Rights Watch repeated its finding that the United States engaged in enforced disappearances — a crime under international law — by sending 252 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Trump’s return to the White House has intensified a “downward spiral” on human rights that was already under pressure from Russia and China, the New York-based advocacy and research group said in its annual report.
“The rules-based international order is being crushed,” HRW said.
In the United States, the group said, Trump has shown “blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations.”
In descriptions that would have been unthinkable in the US section of its previous annual reports, the group pointed to the deployment of masked, armed agents — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency — which has carried out “hundreds of unnecessarily violent and abusive raids.”
“The administration’s racial and ethnic scapegoating, domestic deployment of National Guard forces in pretextual power grabs, repeated acts of retaliation against perceived political enemies and former officials now critical of him, as well as attempts to expand the coercive powers of the executive and neuter democratic checks and balances, underpin a decided shift toward authoritarianism in the US,” the report said.
Human Rights Watch repeated its finding that the United States engaged in enforced disappearances — a crime under international law — by sending 252 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
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