DailyAQIहिं
Kolkata341Very Poor

Kolkata, West Bengal · Live air quality

341
AQI · India scale
Very Poor

You're looking at Kolkata's air right now — AQI 341, very poor, driven by PM2.5.

Jadavpur, Kolkata - WBPCB · 7 stations · updated

Cities › West Bengal › Kolkata

Kolkata Air Quality Index (AQI) Today

Live air quality in Kolkata, West Bengal — real-time AQI, dominant pollutant, PM2.5 & PM10 levels and a plain-English health advisory, computed from CPCB data.

#101 most polluted of 298 live citiesDominant pollutant: PM2.5
Is it safe to go out in Kolkata today?

No — Kolkata's AQI is 341 (Very Poor). Avoid outdoor activity, keep windows closed, run a purifier and wear an N95 mask outdoors.

Breathing today's air is roughly like 8 cigarettes a dayA rough PM2.5 equivalence (Berkeley Earth: ~22 µg/m³ ≈ one cigarette) — a rule of thumb, not medical advice.
No change vs yesterday

Where 341 sits on the India CPCB scale

341
0GoodModeratePoorSevere500

Kolkata air quality forecast

25°C · wind 4 km/h

Light winds (4 km/h) and calm air are letting pollution build up near the ground.

Today338Very Poorlow 81
Tomorrow373Very Poorlow 82
Mon380Very Poorlow 74
00:0006:0012:0018:00

Hourly AQI forecast for the next 24 hours (CPCB scale).

Cleanest air today is forecast around 23:00 (AQI 292) — a good window for outdoor time.

Forecast modelled by Open-Meteo and converted to the CPCB scale. Forecasts are estimates and can change — our live readings above are measured.

What you can do outside right now

Outdoor exercise
Avoid — train indoors
Windows
Keep them closed
Mask outdoors
Wear an N95
Kids’ outdoor play
Keep them indoors
Air purifier
Run it now
Commute
Mask + windows up

General guidance by AQI band. Sensitive groups should act one level earlier.

Live pollutant levels

PM2.5173 µg/m³
Very Poor · index 341
PM10144 µg/m³
Moderate · index 130
NO₂105 µg/m³
Moderate · index 126
O₃59 µg/m³
Satisfactory · index 60
SO₂19 µg/m³
Good · index 24
NH₃14 µg/m³
Good · index 4

Each pollutant's 24-hour concentration is converted to a CPCB sub-index; the city AQI is the highest of them (the dominant pollutant). Bars show the sub-index out of 500.

What this air does to your body

7.9
cigarettes/day equivalent
Breathing today's PM2.5 (173 µg/m³) is roughly like smoking 7.9 cigarettes a day — Berkeley Earth's rule of thumb (22 µg/m³ ≈ 1 cigarette).
−16.5 yr
life-expectancy impact
If this level held all year, it would cut average life expectancy by about 16.5 years versus the WHO guideline (5 µg/m³), per the AQLI method.

Illustrative equivalences from published research (Berkeley Earth; Air Quality Life Index, University of Chicago). Not a medical assessment of your personal risk.

Where the air is cleanest and worst in Kolkata right now

A live comparison of Kolkata's monitoring areas — the cleaner areas are the better choice for outdoor time right now, while the worst are best avoided for exercise. Each figure is a real station reading, not an estimate.

Cleaner areas — where to go

Worst areas — where to avoid

Monitoring stations in Kolkata

7 live CPCB stations, ranked worst air first. Each station's AQI is its own highest pollutant sub-index.

StationAQICategoryPM2.5PM10
Jadavpur, Kolkata - WBPCB341Very Poor173144
Ballygunge, Kolkata - WBPCB341Very Poor173116
Fort William, Kolkata - WBPCB335Very Poor165138
Bidhannagar, Kolkata - WBPCB322Very Poor147123
Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata - WBPCB319Very Poor144121
Victoria, Kolkata - WBPCB309Very Poor131122
Rabindra Sarobar, Kolkata - WBPCB251Poor10597

Source: CPCB continuous ambient air-quality monitoring stations via data.gov.in. Station-level values are the latest hourly averages.

24-hour AQI graph

min 341 · max 396
010020030040010pm: AQI 395 (Very Poor)10pm11pm: AQI 396 (Very Poor)12am: AQI 396 (Very Poor)1am: AQI 395 (Very Poor)2am: AQI 395 (Very Poor)2am3am: AQI 395 (Very Poor)4am: AQI 393 (Very Poor)5am: AQI 390 (Very Poor)6am: AQI 390 (Very Poor)6am7am: AQI 386 (Very Poor)8am: AQI 384 (Very Poor)9am: AQI 381 (Very Poor)10am: AQI 379 (Very Poor)10am11am: AQI 376 (Very Poor)12pm: AQI 373 (Very Poor)1pm: AQI 370 (Very Poor)2pm: AQI 367 (Very Poor)2pm3pm: AQI 364 (Very Poor)4pm: AQI 361 (Very Poor)5pm: AQI 359 (Very Poor)6pm: AQI 355 (Very Poor)6pm7pm: AQI 352 (Very Poor)8pm: AQI 347 (Very Poor)9pm: AQI 341 (Very Poor)9pm

Hourly AQI recorded each hour by DailyAQI (local time). Fills to a rolling 24 hours.

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What Very Poor air means for you

May cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure; effects more pronounced for people with lung and heart disease.

Health guidance per CPCB National Air Quality Index bands. Informational only — not medical advice.

India's metro cities right now

AQI categories (India scale)

AQICategoryAssociated health impact
0–50GoodAir quality is considered satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk.
51–100SatisfactoryAcceptable air quality; minor breathing discomfort possible for unusually sensitive people.
101–200ModerateMay cause breathing discomfort to people with lung disease such as asthma, and to children and older adults.
201–300PoorMay cause breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure.
301–400Very PoorMay cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure; effects more pronounced for people with lung and heart disease.
401–500SevereAffects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases; avoid outdoor activity.

Monitoring location

Approximate location of the monitoring station(s) feeding this reading. Map © OpenStreetMap.

About air quality in Kolkata

This page tracks the Kolkata, West Bengal Air Quality Index using measurements from 7 Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) monitoring stations, published through the Government of India's open-data portal. Right now Kolkata's AQI is 341 (Very Poor), with PM2.5 the dominant pollutant. The AQI is a single number from 0 to 500 that summarises how polluted the air is and what it means for health, built from pollutants such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), coarse particulate matter (PM10), nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone and sulphur dioxide — the index reflects whichever is worst at the time.

How Kolkata's air changes through the year

As an eastern city, Kolkata sees pollution climb in winter — partly under the influence of the wider Indo-Gangetic plain and partly from regional industrial emissions — when calm, cool air holds pollutants near the surface. The monsoon clears the air, and the pre-winter and post-monsoon windows are usually more moderate.

What drives air pollution in Kolkata

Traffic, construction and road dust, industry and the burning of solid fuels are the main local sources, with regional factors and winter weather adding to the load when the air is calm.

Cleaner and worse areas within Kolkata

Air quality is not uniform across a city. Among Kolkata's monitoring areas right now, the air is cleanest around Rabindra Sarobar, Kolkata and worst around Ballygunge, Kolkata — a reminder that local traffic, industry and construction can make a real difference over just a few kilometres. The live area-by-area comparison above shows where to go and where to avoid at this moment.

Best time to visit Kolkata for cleaner air

For the cleanest air, the monsoon and the months just after it are usually best in Kolkata, while the driest, stillest weeks can be worse. Check the live reading on this page before outdoor exercise or sightseeing, and keep an N95 mask handy for high-pollution days.

Staying safe in Kolkata's air

When the AQI is in the Good or Satisfactory range, outdoor activity is fine for almost everyone. From Moderate upward, sensitive groups — children, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with asthma or heart disease — should pace themselves outdoors, and once the air turns Poor or worse it is sensible for everyone to limit strenuous outdoor exertion, keep windows closed, run an air purifier indoors and wear a well-fitting mask outside. This is general information rather than medical advice. We only display a number when a recent station reading exists — if you see "data updating", we are waiting on a fresh value rather than showing an estimate.

Air quality near Kolkata

All West Bengal cities →

The nearest monitored cities to Kolkata, with their live AQI — tap any card for its full report.

Protect your health — air quality guides

Frequently asked questions

What is the AQI in Kolkata today?

The current Air Quality Index in Kolkata is 341 (Very Poor) on the Indian CPCB scale, with PM2.5 as the dominant pollutant.

Is it safe to go outside in Kolkata today?

No — Kolkata's AQI is 341 (Very Poor). Avoid outdoor activity, keep windows closed, run a purifier and wear an N95 mask outdoors.

What is the main pollutant in Kolkata?

Today the dominant pollutant driving Kolkata's AQI is PM2.5. The full pollutant breakdown (PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, O₃, CO, SO₂) is listed above.

How is Kolkata's AQI calculated?

Each pollutant's 24-hour concentration is converted to a sub-index using CPCB breakpoints; the city AQI is the highest sub-index. See our methodology.

What is the air quality forecast for Kolkata tomorrow?

Air in Kolkata is forecast to worsen tomorrow to around AQI 373 (Very Poor), up from about 338 today. Forecasts are modelled estimates (Open-Meteo) and can change.