City report · Bihar, India
Bettiah Air quality today
Air quality in Bettiah currently reads AQI 206 (Very unhealthy): Health alert — everyone should avoid long outdoor exertion.
Air quality right now
AQI 206
Very unhealthy
- PM2.5, fine particles (µg/m³)
- 144.8
- tree cover
- 33.3%
- trees in this area
- 104K
- more trees needed
- 36.6K
Measured across a 2 km radius around Lal Bazar, Bettiah, Bihar 845438, India (12.57 km²), from a satellite image of Oct 26, 2026. Lower AQI is better: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous.
Bettiah · AQI 206 (Very unhealthy)
Bettiah's tree count comes to 104,301 trees across 12.53 km² of land, 12 points below the 45% tree-cover level considered healthy for this area, so roughly 36,646 more trees would close the gap.
Air quality detail
Air quality in Bettiah today: AQI 206, Very unhealthy
Main pollutant: PM2.5 · Observed Nov 11, 06:30 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, corrected with 12 ground-station cities within 145 km, US EPA index. Values in µg/m³.
Estimate · model corrected with 12 station cities within 145 km, e.g. Birgunj and Motihari
Health signal
Health alert — everyone should avoid long outdoor exertion.
PM2.5
144.8
PM10
164.4
NO₂
35.8
O₃
28.0
SO₂
20.7
CO
1204.0
- Outdoor exercise
- Everyone should avoid long or hard exercise outdoors; sensitive groups, all outdoor exertion
- Windows
- Keep them closed
- Mask
- Wear an N95 if you go out
- Air purifier
- Run one on high
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Bettiah's daily AQI at 189 on average, from 151 on Nov 9 to an hourly peak of 279 on Nov 8.
This is the US EPA AQI. How it differs from India's AQI (CPCB) · The full guide
Where Bettiah stands: the most polluted cities in the world right now · the cleanest
Tree cover detail
Tree cover in Bettiah: Below target
33.3% tree cover against a 45% healthy-neighborhood target, across 12.53 km² of land.
Trees in this area
104,301
Target trees
140,947
More trees needed
36,646
CO₂ if planted / yr
806.2 t
Deforestation · 2001–2025
How much forest has Bettiah lost?
There was very little forest around Bettiah in 2000, about 69 hectares, and about 3 hectares of it has been lost since. Only fairly dense woodland counts as forest in these maps, so scattered street and garden trees don't show up here.
2017: satellite photo from February 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area in the city center.
The worst year was 2001, when about 2 hectares of forest were lost.
Hectares of forest lost each year
Show the figures as a table
| Year | Cleared for good | Can grow back | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | under 1 ha | 2 ha | 2 ha |
| 2002 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2003 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2004 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2005 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2006 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2007 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2008 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2009 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2010 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2011 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2012 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2013 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2014 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2015 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2016 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2017 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2018 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2019 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2020 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2021 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2022 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2023 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2024 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2025 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
Forest gained and lost, 2000–2020
- Forest in 2000
- 2,990 ha
- Forest in 2020
- 3,090 ha
- Overall change
- +100 hamore forest than in 2000
Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Bettiah grew from about 2,990 hectares to 3,090 hectares, a net gain of about 100 hectares (+3.3%). New forest grew on about 131 hectares, while 31 hectares were lost.
These 2000 and 2020 maps, from the University of Maryland, count any land with trees taller than 5 m as forest, including plantations and orchards. Forest that was cut or burned and had grown back by 2020 counts in both years, so the loss here is smaller than the yearly figures.
These figures cover everything within 10 km of the city center, a wider area than the report above, because forest is usually lost at a city's edges.
Source: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, Global Forest Change (GFC-2025-v1.13); causes: WRI/Google DeepMind drivers of forest loss; both CC BY 4.0, summed by Airleaf for each area. Forest gained and lost 2000–2020: Potapov et al. 2022, UMD GLAD Global Land Cover and Land Use Change, CC BY 4.0. Images: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data. How it's measured
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Frequently asked
Questions about Bettiah
What is the air quality (AQI) in Bettiah right now?
The latest reading for Bettiah shows an AQI of 206 (Very unhealthy), observed Nov 11, 06:30 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, corrected with 12 ground-station cities within 145 km, US EPA index. The main pollutant is PM2.5. Health alert — everyone should avoid long outdoor exertion.
Is it safe to exercise outside in Bettiah today?
At AQI 206 (Very unhealthy): everyone should avoid long or hard exercise outdoors; sensitive groups, all outdoor exertion. Windows: keep them closed. Masks: wear an N95 if you go out. The reading changes through the day, so check again before a long run or ride.
What has the air quality in Bettiah been like this week?
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Bettiah's daily AQI at 189 on average, from 151 on Nov 9 to an hourly peak of 279 on Nov 8. On 7 of those days the average was above 100, unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Is Bettiah's AQI the same as India's AQI (CPCB)?
No. Airleaf shows the US EPA Air Quality Index (AQI), the scale used by IQAir and most air-quality apps. India's Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) publishes the National Air Quality Index on its own scale: 0–50 good, 51–100 satisfactory, 101–200 moderate, 201–300 poor, 301–400 very poor and 401–500 severe. The two scales don't line up. At moderate fine-particle levels the US scale reads higher: 55 µg/m³ of PM2.5 is 149 on the US AQI but about 92, "satisfactory", on India's. In heavy smog India's reads higher: 100 µg/m³ is 182 on the US AQI and about 232, "poor", on India's. CPCB also averages particles over 24 hours, so its figure moves more slowly than an hourly reading.
How much forest has the area around Bettiah lost since 2001?
There was very little forest around Bettiah in 2000, about 69 hectares, and about 3 hectares of it has been lost since. Only fairly dense woodland counts as forest in these maps, so scattered street and garden trees don't show up here. Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Bettiah grew from about 2,990 hectares to 3,090 hectares, a net gain of about 100 hectares (+3.3%). New forest grew on about 131 hectares, while 31 hectares were lost.
What is the tree count in Bettiah?
Bettiah has an estimated 104,301 trees across the 12.53 km² of land measured — 33.3% tree cover, 12 percentage points short of the 45% tree-cover target set for this area.
How many more trees does Bettiah need?
Bettiah needs roughly 36,646 more trees to close a 12-point shortfall against its 45% tree-cover target — about 806.2 t of extra CO₂ absorbed per year once grown.
How are Bettiah's air quality and tree cover measured?
Air quality comes from ground monitoring stations via OpenAQ where one reports nearby, and otherwise, as here, from the Open-Meteo / CAMS model, which may differ from street-level monitors. Tree cover is measured from Sentinel-2 L2A (ESA Copernicus) via Earth Search satellite imagery at 10 m detail across a 2 km radius around Lal Bazar; the tree count is an estimate derived from that cover.
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