WEB DESK: New Delhi, India’s capital, was engulfed in a dense and toxic haze on Monday as air pollution levels soared to more than 16 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily limit.
Home to over 30 million residents, New Delhi and its expansive metropolitan area are frequently listed among the most polluted capitals globally. Each winter, the city is cloaked in a blanket of acrid smog, largely due to cooler air trapping pollutants near the ground. This toxic mixture results from emissions from crop burning, industrial activity, and heavy traffic.
The recent spike in pollution has also been attributed to days of fireworks set off during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, which culminates on Monday night. Despite efforts to curb this, such as the Supreme Court easing a blanket ban to permit “green firecrackers” designed to emit fewer particulates, past instances show that bans have often been disregarded.
On Monday, monitoring organization IQAir reported that PM2.5 levels—microparticles small enough to penetrate the bloodstream and linked to cancer—reached 248 micrograms per cubic meter in parts of the city.
The government’s Commission of Air Quality Management warned that conditions are expected to worsen in the coming days and introduced several measures to tackle pollution. These include ensuring uninterrupted power supply to reduce reliance on diesel generators.
A study published last year in The Lancet Planetary Health estimated that air pollution was linked to 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019. Meanwhile, UNICEF has raised concerns over the heightened risk children face from polluted air, which significantly increases their susceptibility to acute respiratory infections.
