Guwahati, May 14 -- Nabarun Guha

"Even if we close all our windows, doors and ventilators, the dust enters. We can't dry our clothes outside, children can't play outside, how much we might clean our house, there is just no respite from the dust." Alin Syngkli, a homemaker, was talking about the effects of pollution, sitting on the stairs of her under-construction house in the Rajabagan area ofByrnihat.

Byrnihat, a small industrial town nestled on the border of Assam and Meghalaya, has been gaining attention this year after being declared 'the most polluted metropolitan area in the world' by the2024 IQAir World Air Quality Report. The report published by Swiss firm IQAir from Steinach, Switzerland, earlier in March this year, said that B...