Industrial town, cleaner crown!

Parwanoo, Himachal’s oldest industrial town, is once again on the national clean air map. In the recently announced Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan 2025, the bustling border town secured the second rank in the category of towns with populations under three lakh. While it had tasted the glory of a top national ranking in 2023, slipping down last year was a setback the civic body was determined to correct.

This year’s comeback is no accident. Backed by a financial assistance of Rs 1.70 crore under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), the municipal council and State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) launched a series of interventions aimed at tackling the town’s most stubborn enemy — dust.

Fighting dust at its source

An IIT Kanpur study spanning Parwanoo’s 8.5 sq. km identified road dust as the primary culprit for air pollution. Taking a cue, the civic body set out to create end-to-end pavement on a 9 km stretch, replacing crumbling surfaces with paver blocks and interlocking tiles. Proper drainage systems were built to prevent erosion, while the menace of construction and demolition waste, often left in the open, was brought under the scanner for stricter disposal mechanisms.

“Containing particulate matter (PM10) was our biggest challenge,” explained Anil Kumar, regional officer of SPCB, Parwanoo. “It comes not just from construction and vehicles but also natural sources like agricultural activities and wildfires. Still, consistent efforts helped us bring PM10 levels down by 40%, from 66 to 39 micrograms per cubic metre between 2017-18 and 2023-24.”

Green pockets, cleaner roads

Beyond paving and road refurbishing, the town invested Rs 11 lakh to develop a 0.27-acre green buffer zone. Plantation drives were intensified to enhance greenery and act as natural dust filters. Hotspots of open garbage dumping were identified and curbed, helping reduce roadside litter and emissions from biomass burning.

Ambient air quality monitoring stations, two in the town, acted as sentinels, offering real-time data and guiding interventions. This scientific approach, combined with civic discipline, has transformed Parwanoo’s airscape.

Sustainable cleanliness

The feat is more than just numbers on a ranking list. For residents, cleaner air means healthier living and a better quality of life in a town that has long balanced its identity as an industrial hub with its aspiration to be liveable.

Parwanoo’s climb back to the top rungs of the national rankings underscores a larger lesson: clean air is not a one-time achievement but the outcome of consistent, coordinated action between government, institutions and citizens.