How to check the air quality of a locality before you move

In much of North India, air quality is a daily health decision, and it isn't uniform across a city — proximity to traffic corridors, industry and green cover all shift it. It also swings dramatically by season, peaking in winter across the Indo-Gangetic plain.

What the AQI number means

The Air Quality Index compresses several pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, SO₂, CO, O₃) into a single 0–500 scale. PM2.5 — fine particulate matter — is usually the one that matters most for health. Roughly: 0–50 is good, 51–100 moderate, and anything above 150 is where sensitive groups should take care.

How to check it for an area

• Find the nearest monitoring station and how far it is — the closer, the more representative.
• Look at the season, not just today. A pleasant October reading can hide a brutal November.
• Note the dominant pollutant — traffic-heavy areas skew toward NO₂; construction and regional haze toward PM.
• Weigh green cover and distance from major roads when comparing two nearby options.

In Nearside

When a live monitoring station is nearby, Nearside shows the current AQI, the dominant pollutant, a short forecast, and crucially how far the station is — so you know how much to trust it. Air-quality data is sourced from the World Air Quality Index project. Where no live station is close enough, we say so rather than show a misleading far-away reading.

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