Toxic smog envelops New Delhi primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers
\n New Delhi
\nIndia\u2019s capital New Delhi switched schools to online classes Monday until further notice as worsening toxic smog surged past 60 times the World Health Organization\u2019s recommended daily maximum.
\nVarious piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the smog blamed for thousands of premature deaths each year and particularly impacting the health of children and the elderly.
\nPollution extended across a swathe of northern India \u2014 with the tourists at the Taj Mahal in Agra snapping photographs of the barely visible white marble monument \u2014 and choked residents of Lahore in neighbouring Pakistan.
\n\u201cMy eyes have been burning for the last few days,\u201d said rickshaw puller Subodh Kumar, 30.
\n\u201cPollution or no pollution, I have to be on the road, where else will I go?\u201d he said, pausing from eating at a roadside stall.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t have an option to stay indoors… our livelihood, food, and life \u2014 everything is in the open.\u201d
\nThe city is blanketed in poisonous smog each year, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in neighbouring regions to clear their fields for ploughing, as well as factories and traffic fumes.
\nA report by The New York Times this month, based on samples collected over five years, revealed dangerous fumes also spewing from a power plant incinerating rubbish from landfill garbage mountains.
\nLevels of PM2.5 pollutants \u2014 dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs \u2014 peaked at 921 micrograms per cubic metre at midday on Monday, according to IQAir pollution monitors, with a reading above 15 in a 24-hour period considered unhealthy by the WHO.
\nIndividual monitoring stations noted even higher levels \u2014 one government-run monitor recorded PM2.5 pollutants at 1117 micrograms, 74 times the WHO maximum.
\nDense grey and acrid smog smothered New Delhi, with IQAir listing conditions as \u201chazardous\u201d.
\nPrimary schools were ordered to cease in-person classes on Thursday, with a raft of further restrictions imposed on Monday, including limiting diesel-powered trucks and construction.
\nAuthorities hope by keeping children at home, traffic will be reduced.
\nThe government urged children and the elderly, as well as those with lung or heart issues \u201cto stay indoors as much as possible\u201d.
\nAir filters are too expensive for many, and most do not have homes they can effectively seal from the misery of dangerous foul-smelling air.
\n\u201cThe rich ministers and officials can afford to stay indoors, not ordinary people like us,\u201d said rickshaw taxi driver Rinku Kumar, 45.
\n\u201cWho can even afford an air purifier when paying monthly bills is a challenge?\u201d
\nIndia\u2019s Supreme Court ordered the authorities to take \u201call possible\u201d action.
\n\u201cIt is the constitutional obligation of the central government and state governments to ensure citizens live in a pollution free atmosphere,\u201d the court said.
\nLong-time Delhi resident William Dalrymple said he was shocked to \u201cfind the city embalmed in an all-enveloping burial shroud of pollution\u201d, he wrote on social media.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like this in 40 years of living here,\u201d the Scottish historian wrote, saying the \u201cmost fascinating of cities\u201d was \u201ccurrently a tragic, choking death trap\u201d.
\nCritics say arguments between rival politicians heading neighbouring states \u2014 as well as between central and state-level authorities \u2014 have compounded the problem.
\nPoliticians are accused of not wanting to anger key figures in their constituencies, particularly powerful farming groups.
\nBut Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, who uses one name, blamed surrounding states for not stopping farmers burning the stubble.
\n\u201cThe people of Delhi are really troubled, they can\u2019t breathe,\u201d she told reporters Monday.
\n\u201cI kept receiving phone calls the entire night from people who had to admit their elderly parents to hospitals for breathing issues, or parents looking for steroid inhalers for their children,\u201d she added.
\n\u201cWhy? Because stubble is being burnt all over the country, in every state, everywhere, and the national government isn\u2019t doing anything. Today, the entire north of India has been pushed into a medical emergency\u201d.
\nDelhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Toxic smog envelops New Delhi primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers New Delhi India\u2019s capital New Delhi switched schools to online classes Monday until further notice as worsening toxic smog surged past 60 times the World Health Organization\u2019s recommended daily maximum. Various piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n