Kolkata — CPCB Monitoring Stations
Every CPCB monitoring station in Kolkata, ranked by long-run AQI. Based on CPCB station data, 2016–present.
West Bengal · Live Kolkata AQI →
How much does neighbourhood matter in Kolkata?
The spread between Kolkata's cleanest (AQI 95) and dirtiest (AQI 151) CPCB station is roughly one NAQI category. In practice, your AQI experience in Kolkata can differ meaningfully depending on which neighbourhood you live or work in — a city-wide headline number averages these stations out.
Every station on one number line
Each dot is one CPCB station, placed at its long-run average AQI (1–500). Colour follows the NAQI category. Closer clusters mean more uniform air; spread-out dots mean more disparity.
CPCB stations that map to neighbourhoods
6 of Kolkata's 7 CPCB stations match a neighbourhood with a live-AQI page on AQI Today. Click to see current conditions near that station.
Kolkata — all 7 CPCB stations
- 1Rabindra Bharati University (WBPCB)1511667d
- 2Victoria (WBPCB)1281797d
- 3Ballygunge (WBPCB)1211467d
- 4Bidhannagar (WBPCB)1091490d
- 5Fort William (WBPCB)1081558d
- 6Jadavpur (WBPCB)1051592d
- 7Rabindra Sarobar (WBPCB)951520d
City-wide category distribution
- Good:8.6%
- Satisfactory:39.2%
- Moderate:20.9%
- Poor:18.5%
- Very Poor:11.8%
- Severe:1%
Based on 2,076 daily max AQI readings.
Disparity summary
- Cleanest station avg
- AQI 95
- Median station avg
- AQI 109
- Dirtiest station avg
- AQI 151
- Gap
- 56 pts
- City-wide avg
- AQI 117
What the numbers say
Overview
Kolkata is monitored by 7 CPCB stations, and they do not agree with each other. The cleanest station averages AQI 95, the median station averages 109, and the most polluted averages 151. That is a 56-point gap between neighbourhoods of the same city.
The data story
Across the long-run record, the worst-performing station in Kolkata has been around the Rabindra Bharati University Kolkata WBPCB area, averaging AQI 151 with peaks hitting 453. This is typical of industrial corridors, traffic junctions near fossil-fuel heating zones, or areas at the end of the prevailing wind that accumulate the city's emissions.
Why this pattern
Intra-city AQI disparities are normal in dense Indian cities because emission sources — factories, highways, brick kilns, waste-burning dumps — are concentrated in specific neighbourhoods rather than evenly spread. Monitoring stations are placed to capture this variation: a leafy residential pocket can post AQI 120 on the same afternoon that an industrial-boundary station reads 260. Any single "city AQI" number is an average that hides the real range of exposures experienced by residents.
What to do with this
If you live in Kolkata, use this leaderboard to find the nearest station to your home or workplace and treat that reading as more relevant than the city average. Parents choosing schools, employers planning outdoor work and runners picking routes should all factor in station-level data. If your neighbourhood station is in the top-three worst, treat indoor air quality, mask use on bad days, and window timing as priority interventions.