New Delhi struggles to breathe as pollution hits critical levels
INDIA’S capital New Delhi was enveloped in heavy, toxic smog yesterday, with flights diverted or delayed as politicians blamed each other for failing to tackle the worst pollution levels in recent years.
Every winter, the megacity of 20 million people is blanketed by a poisonous haze of car fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from stubble-burning at farms in neighbouring states.
The reading for pollutants in the atmosphere hit 810 micrograms per cubic metre yesterday morning, according to the US embassy in Delhi, which independently monitors pollution levels.
The recommended World Health Organisation safe daily maximum is 25.
“Pollution has reached unbearable levels,” Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister, tweeted. Visibility was so poor that the country’s major carriers Air India and Vistara said flights were being delayed or diverted to and from Delhi’s airports yesterday.
Cricket players and coaches trained in masks ahead of the Twenty20 International between Bangladesh and India.
“It’s actually scary – you can’t see things in front of you,” one protester told AFP at a rally in Delhi calling for politicians to do more to curb pollution. Nurses at the demonstration said they were seeing more people suffering from respiratory problems.
The conditions sparked a blame game between state and federal politicians over who was responsible.
Schools in Delhi have been ordered to close until tomorrow.