{"paper_id":"26d717ce-b20e-4fb9-bfac-751e495efb74","body_text":"What Drives Air Pollution in India? Evidence from Satellite Data | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article What Drives Air Pollution in India? Evidence from Satellite Data Shobhit Kulshreshtha, Shashank Misra, Gargi Boora This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9545814/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Air pollution is a major concern in India which is driven by long-term structural factors such as rapid urbanization, rising energy demand, motorization, and sustained economic growth. Among various pollutants, particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) has been widely documented to have significant adverse health effects. This paper examines the determinants of PM2.5 concentrations in India using satellite-based data from 2001 to 2019. Combining information on land use, economic activity, environmental conditions, and emissions, we classify key drivers into four categories: agricultural burning, environmental buffers, urbanization, and vehicular emissions. We employ a Shapley–Owen decomposition, which attributes the overall explanatory power of a model across groups of variables, to quantify the relative contribution of each category to variation in pollution. We find that vehicular emissions are the dominant driver, accounting for nearly 70% of the explained withindistrict variation in PM2.5 concentrations. However, the relative importance of these factors changes over time, with environmental buffers playing a larger role in the early 2000s, followed by increasing contributions from urbanization in recent years. We also document substantial regional heterogeneity, with agricultural burning and vehicular emissions driving pollution in North India and populated cities, while vehicular emissions dominate in the Southern region. These findings highlight the need for targeted and region-specific policy interventions to address air pollution in India. JEL-codes: Q53, Q56, R14 Social science/Environmental studies Social science/Development studies Social science/Economics Air Pollution Urbanization Land Use Patterns Economic Growth Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {\"props\":{\"pageProps\":{\"initialData\":{\"identity\":\"rs-9545814\",\"acceptedTermsAndConditions\":true,\"allowDirectSubmit\":true,\"archivedVersions\":[],\"articleType\":\"Article\",\"associatedPublications\":[],\"authors\":[{\"id\":634362609,\"identity\":\"a816866a-54cc-4938-8f42-5e25c7a1cc92\",\"order_by\":0,\"name\":\"Shobhit Kulshreshtha\",\"email\":\"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABDElEQVRIie3RMUvDQBjG8TccdHpxTjlIvsILB5FSNV+lIdAsFeriHAikS90PHPwKXQWHk8C5BOcMDkrBWcgiWNALrQj2bFaH+y8HBz94jgNwuf5jPgwYUHeynHUXBAjw1k/InN6ODBA82UvgF2F4QITXhV7P5xsYyqRoL+5O4uPw6r49LSsIF7mV0JPOhDTDuJ+UXL5Ok9vyKOXnhlCt7MSfRRwNCQxhqKoJaaQt8Sf2YfKHFC2qz9gQ8THqht082x/T7IgZlnNUyltpjLhnCDR2Qc00E0gCh8uX0pA0WelZNFo+Zkj1X8NSvcZNEPgPaWWGncVU1aJ5vxwH4cL+/O/2P+LQ17hcLperpy/IE1XRAKog+wAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\",\"orcid\":\"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4351-1076\",\"institution\":\"Uppsala University\",\"correspondingAuthor\":true,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"Shobhit\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"Kulshreshtha\",\"suffix\":\"\"},{\"id\":634362610,\"identity\":\"b3657cae-ee86-4444-9637-bc3a3c5ae295\",\"order_by\":1,\"name\":\"Shashank Misra\",\"email\":\"\",\"orcid\":\"\",\"institution\":\"Tilburg University\",\"correspondingAuthor\":false,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"Shashank\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"Misra\",\"suffix\":\"\"},{\"id\":634362611,\"identity\":\"88277a91-c189-4d4b-b047-0910aca7abde\",\"order_by\":2,\"name\":\"Gargi Boora\",\"email\":\"\",\"orcid\":\"\",\"institution\":\"Guru Jambheshwar University of Science \\u0026 Technology\",\"correspondingAuthor\":false,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"Gargi\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"Boora\",\"suffix\":\"\"}],\"badges\":[],\"createdAt\":\"2026-04-27 20:21:17\",\"currentVersionCode\":1,\"declarations\":\"\",\"doi\":\"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9545814/v1\",\"doiUrl\":\"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9545814/v1\",\"draftVersion\":[],\"editorialEvents\":[],\"editorialNote\":\"\",\"failedWorkflow\":false,\"files\":[{\"id\":108807928,\"identity\":\"e2e9b812-1a0c-4075-b4e1-b73e9981612e\",\"added_by\":\"auto\",\"created_at\":\"2026-05-08 15:37:00\",\"extension\":\"pdf\",\"order_by\":1,\"title\":\"\",\"display\":\"\",\"copyAsset\":false,\"role\":\"manuscript-pdf\",\"size\":5049858,\"visible\":true,\"origin\":\"\",\"legend\":\"Article File\",\"description\":\"\",\"filename\":\"Manuscript.pdf\",\"url\":\"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9545814/v1_covered_ded7842c-95b4-4e2a-8237-e794589b158f.pdf\"}],\"financialInterests\":\"There is \\u003cb\\u003eNO\\u003c/b\\u003e Competing Interest.\",\"formattedTitle\":\"What Drives Air Pollution in India? 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