NCAP rankings: HP's Parwanoo secures top spot in smaller cities category

In an annual survey, under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), that ranks the action taken by towns and cities to improve air quality; Indore, Jabalpur, Agra and Surat took the lead.

Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh was declared the second best in the country among places with less than 3 lakh population, officials said on Tuesday.

In category-1 (population of over 10 lakh population), Indore secured Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan Awards & Wetland Cities Recognition Ceremony 2025 was organised today by the Union Environment Ministry.

Indore planted over 16 lakh trees last year, earning a Guinness World Record, and also has public transport run through 120 electric buses and 150 CNG buses.

In the same category, Jabalpur secured second rank. It has set up 11 MW waste to energy plant and developed greenery. Agra and Surat bagged the third spot. Agra has remediated legacy waste dump site and carried out the Miyawaki plantation while Surat has brought electric vehicle policy to provide incentives and tax benefits to EVs and maintains 38 per cent green cover.

Amravati in Maharashtra secured first rank in the category of population between 3 and 10 lakh. The city was awarded for improved road infrastructure and converting 19 acres of barren land into dense forest.

In the same category, Jhansi and Moradabad secured second rank. Jhansi developed urban greening and miyawaki forests and Moradabad has worked on road infrastructure and construction and demolition waste management.

In the category of population under 3 lakh, Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas secured first rank for making industries shifting to cleaner fuels.

Odisha’s Angul secured third rank for improving road infrastructure.

Moradabad and Agra have won for the third time and Indore, Jabalpur, Surat, Jhansi, Dewas, Parwanoo and Angul became the winner for the second time.

In the last 10 years, the number of Ramsar sites have increased to 91 from 25 Ramsar sites in 2014 showing an improvement of 250 per cent.

Indore and Udaipur have been recognised as Wetland Cities under Ramsar Convention.