Gorakhpur Air Quality Index (AQI) & Air Pollution Today

Uttar Pradesh, India — Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI) and PM2.5

Gorakhpur AQI Right Now

134

Category: Moderate

Dominant Pollutant: pm10

PM2.5: 57.86 µg/m³

PM10: 150.5 µg/m³

Last updated: 2026-03-24 — Data source: Google Air Quality API (NAQI). Live NAQI values load when you visit the page.

Gorakhpur Pollutant Levels

PollutantConcentration
PM2.557.86 µg/m³
PM10150.5 µg/m³
O₃ (Ozone)1.29 µg/m³
NO₂13.1 µg/m³
SO₂14.47 µg/m³
CO61.41 µg/m³

Health Advisory — Gorakhpur

Moderate: Breathing discomfort to people with lungs, asthma and heart diseases.

Health Impact — Gorakhpur

Cigarette Equivalent: Breathing this air is equivalent to smoking 2.6 cigarettes per day (based on current PM2.5 levels).

Life Expectancy Impact: Sustained exposure at this PM2.5 level could reduce life expectancy by 0.31 years (AQLI estimate, relative to WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³).

Health Recommendations for Gorakhpur

  • General Population: People with respiratory or heart conditions should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
  • Elderly: Reduce prolonged outdoor activities.
  • Children: Reduce prolonged outdoor play.
  • Lung Disease Patients: Avoid prolonged outdoor exertion.

Understanding Gorakhpur Air Quality

Gorakhpur, the spiritual and administrative centre of eastern Uttar Pradesh and home to the revered Gorakhnath Temple, faces some of the most challenging winter air quality conditions in the Gangetic Plain. The city sits in the low-lying Rapti River floodplain near the Nepal border, where the high water table and saturated soil create ideal conditions for dense radiation fog during winter nights - fog that traps vehicular exhaust, biomass smoke, and industrial emissions in a shallow, stagnant surface layer.

October through January represents the worst air quality period, with PM2.5 concentrations routinely exceeding 200 µg/m³ during December and January and visibility dropping below 50 metres on many mornings. The brick kiln belt on Gorakhpur's periphery - stretching along the Gorakhpur-Deoria and Gorakhpur-Kushinagar roads - operates at peak capacity during the dry season, adding substantial PM and SO2 emissions. Widespread domestic biomass cooking (wood, dung cakes, crop residue) in the city's extensive peri-urban and slum areas provides a persistent baseline emission source. Open waste burning at unmanaged dump sites exacerbates conditions, particularly in crowded areas around the BRD Medical College and Golghar market zones.

Crop residue burning from rice paddy fields in surrounding districts adds a regional smoke layer during October–November, though eastern UP's burning intensity is lower than Punjab-Haryana. The monsoon (July–September) transforms air quality dramatically, with heavy rainfall and Rapti River flooding flushing pollutants and delivering AQI in the Good range. Summer months (April–June) are moderate, with dust and heat haze keeping PM10 elevated but PM2.5 at manageable levels.

Primary Pollution Sources

  • Vehicle exhaust
  • Road dust
  • Brick kilns
  • Crop residue burning
  • Domestic biomass burning
  • Open waste burning

Geography: Eastern Uttar Pradesh near the Nepal border; low-lying Gangetic floodplain in the Rapti River basin, high water table creates persistent winter fog

Peak pollution months: October, November, December, January

Frequently Asked Questions — Gorakhpur

Why does Gorakhpur have such dense winter smog?

Gorakhpur's extreme winter smog results from a combination of its low-lying floodplain geography, high water table, and intense radiation fog. The Rapti River basin's saturated soil creates persistent fog that traps all local emissions - vehicle exhaust, biomass burning smoke, brick kiln pollution, and waste burning - in a shallow surface layer. Combined with temperature inversions and near-zero wind speeds on many winter nights, this creates suffocating smog conditions with visibility often below 50 metres.

How do brick kilns affect Gorakhpur's air quality?

The belt of brick kilns around Gorakhpur's periphery - primarily along roads to Deoria, Kushinagar, and Maharajganj - is a major seasonal pollution source operating during the dry months (October–May). These kilns burn coal and biomass to fire bricks, emitting PM2.5, PM10, SO2, CO, and black carbon. Their elevated chimneys distribute pollutants across a wide area, and under winter inversion conditions, these emissions remain concentrated near the surface.

Air Quality in Nearby Cities