eng Science and Education Publishing Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences 2328-3920 2022-03-23 10 3 131 146 10.12691/aees-10-3-9 AEES20221039 article Namrata D. Jain 1 Jay Bergi 2 Ratna Trivedi drratnatrivedi@gmail.com 2 Department of Environment Science, Shree Ramakrishna Institute of Computer Education and Applied Science, M.T.B. College Campus, Athwalines, Surat ¨C 395001, Gujarat, India Department of Biotechnology, Shree Ramakrishna Institute of Computer Education and Applied Science, M.T.B. College Campus, Athwalines, Surat ¨C 395001, Gujarat, India Now a day, India along with whole world is facing the worst phase of air pollution. All the metropolitan and smart cities air is suffering from various pollutants. Even though rural areas are not away from this severe problem. AQI, AQI Index, visuality and respiratory illness are some of the eye catching words in media today. Air quality is not dependent on any single parameter. Air quality gets affected by gases, particulate matters, topography, metrology, chemical compounds etc. This paper focusesĄŻ the effect of criteria pollutants, volatile organic compounds and meteorological factors on the air quality of various cities. The Air Quality Index of those cities has been compared with parameters and whole AQI values have been categorized into five ranges mentioned by NAAQS. The data collected and analyzed in this paper entails that PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and NOx are the key role players. Amongst VOCĄŻs, toluene played the main role while in metrology solar radiations and wind degree influenced the air quality most. At certain locations the AQI index reached its severe category which results in respiratory ailments and ultimately death on prolonged exposure to this condition. http://pubs.sciepub.com/aees/10/3/9/aees-10-3-9.pdf Air Quality Index (AQI) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)