Urban Pollution: Science and Management, First Edition. Edited by Susanne M. Charlesworth and Colin A. Booth. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 341 26.1 Introduction Indian firms/industries have expanded very rapidly in the last 30years, especially in urban areas. Rapid growth in industrialisa- tion is leading to many environmental issues, including emission of uncontrolled pollut- ants (CPCB, 2010). The emissions of vehi- cles, municipal solid waste dumping sites, real estate development, e‐waste processing sites, destruction of forests, and land degra- dation due to urbanisation are other sources of pollution. Several industries established near or in urban areas are polluting the envi- ronment heavily. These are aluminium (Al) and zinc (Zn) smelter industries, cement, chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu) smelters, fertiliser, iron and steel industries, distillery indus- tries, oil refineries, pharmaceuticals and pet- rochemicals, and pulp and paper industries. In India, urbanisation has witnessed un- precedented growth over the past 40 years. During the last 50 years, the urban popula- tion of India has grown nearly five times (around 400 million people live in cities, in sharp contrast to 60 million in 1947). About 140 million people will move to the cities by 2020 in India, and another 700 million by 2050. The number of Indian megacities will increase from the current three (Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata) to six (including Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad) by 2021. That increasing population results in rapid con- sumption of energy and other resources, which is contributing to urban pollution. Indian urban areas contain high levels of cri- teria pollutants (e.g. particulate matter, SO 2 , and NO x ), greenhouse gases, ozone precur- sors, and aerosols. The State of World Cities Report (2012) shows that Mumbai and New Delhi perform weakly on economic and environmental dimensions. Thus, Indian cit- ies are growing in an unsustainable manner compared to other global cities, like Vienna and Tokyo (Table 26.1). 26.2 Issues Related to Urban Pollution in India The environmental issues are unplanned settlements, waste management, natural dis- aster preparedness, traffic management, and degradation and pollution of water and land resources and air quality. Vegetation clear- ance, drainage channel modifications, and inappropriate agricultural practices cause increased water erosion, which often creates increased pollutant transport (Arora and Reddy, 2013). Alarming levels of particu- late matter are reported in urban areas of India due to ever‐increasing traffic, growing energy consumption, unplanned urban and industrial development, and the high influx 26 Urban Pollution in India Manoj Shrivastava, Avijit Ghosh, Ranjan Bhattacharyya, and S.D. Singh Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture (CESCRA), Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India