India, Feb. 26 -- Monitoring is the proverbial 'Achilles' heel' in India's fight against air pollution, with the monitoring network for air pollution not having kept pace with either the scale or complexity of the problem, according to the 2026 State of India's Environment report.

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)-Down To Earth's annual State of India's Environment report was released in Nimli near Rajasthan's Alwar on February 25 at the 2026 Anil Agarwal Dialogue, a conclave of communicators from all over India.

"According to our (CSE's) analysis, only 15 per cent of India's population - about 200 million people - live within 10 km of a continuous monitor. The remaining 85 per cent, more than 1.2 billion people, breathe outside ...