Toxic haze chokes Indian capital, pollution spikes due to Diwali fireworks
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
New Delhi and its sprawling metropolitan region are regularly ranked among the world’s most polluted capitals.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
NEW DELHI – India’s capital New Delhi was shrouded in a thick, toxic haze on Oct 20 as air pollution levels soared to more than 16 times the World Health Organisation’s recommended daily maximum.
New Delhi and its sprawling metropolitan region – home to more than 30 million people – are regularly ranked among the world’s most polluted capitals, with acrid smog blanketing the skyline each winter.
Cooler air traps pollutants close to the ground, creating a deadly mix of emissions from crop burning, factories and heavy traffic.
But pollution has also spiked owing to days of fireworks set off to mark Diwali, the major Hindu festival of lights, which culminates on the night of Oct 20.
The Indian Supreme Court relaxed in October a blanket ban on fireworks over Diwali
The ban has been widely ignored in past years.
On Oct 20, levels of PM2.5 – cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream – hit 248 micrograms per cubic m in parts of the city, according to monitoring organisation IQAir.
The government’s Commission for Air Quality Management said air quality is expected to further deteriorate in the coming days.
It also implemented a set of measures to curb pollution levels, including asking the authorities to ensure uninterrupted power supply to reduce the use of diesel generators.
City authorities have said they will trial cloud seeding by aeroplanes for the first time over Delhi in October. This is the practice of firing salt or other chemicals into clouds to induce rain to clear the air.
“We’ve already got everything we need to do the cloud seeding”, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa told reporters in October, saying flight trials and pilot training had been completed.
A study in The Lancet Planetary Health journal in 2024 estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.
The UN children’s agency warns that polluted air puts children at heightened risk of acute respiratory infections. AFP
