Royalty’s tryst with city’s pollution
NEW DELHI: The royalty from the UK and Belgium walked into an unexpected haze of toxins that made Delhi’s air the worst this season.
Delhi air was at least 50-times more polluted than London’s in terms of fine particulate matter when Prince Charles and his wife Camilla stepped out of their Royal Air Force flight at Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi on Wednesday afternoon.
King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium, who arrived on Sunday night, also inspected the guard of honour at the Rashtrapati Bhawan through a curtain of dense smog on Tuesday.
At this time, Brussels was at least 20 times less polluted than the Indian capital.
Near Buckingham Palace, air pollution level was at ‘2’ on Wednesday afternoon on a scale of 0-10, where 1-3 is the best air quality possible.
On the other hand, air quality in Delhi has been so severe that the Delhi chief minister termed it a poisonous gas chamber and some experts said just breathing was like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.
The British royal couple, who are visiting for two days are experiencing the worst of Delhi pollution this year.
The Twitterati in India had a field day at the expense of British Royalty.
“It’s almost as if India is inviting the world’s monarchs to breathe Delhi’s toxic air to make the world more democratic,”tweeted Siddharth Singh, Others suggested that it was payback for colonisation.
Prince Charles’ office did not respond to calls to see if they had taken additional precautions while in Delhi.
The terrible air quality doesn’t just have activists worried. Industry groups in India also sounded the alarm expressing fears that the capital might be losing out on expat talent.
“Increasing air pollution can take a toll on the urban economy by cutting short life span of people, thereby increasing healthcare costs to the government, drive away top executives and talented people to other cities,” ASSOCHAM secretary general, DS Rawat, said.