Choked by pollution, New Delhi closes its schools for a week

New Delhi is shutting down. The authorities of the Indian capital, suffocated by a mixture of pollution and smoke, announced on Sunday November 5 that schools would remain closed for another week. Every autumn, the city, already among the most polluted metropolises on the planet in normal times, lives in almost unbreathable air when smoke coming from the surrounding countryside, where farmers burn the stubble, is added to the pollution.

“As pollution levels continue to be very high, primary schools in Delhi will remain closed until November 10”the Delhi state education minister said on X, adding that secondary schools could “choose to take classes by video” if they wanted.

Nearly 1.7 million deaths in 2019

The Indian capital, with its population of 30 million inhabitants, was once again the most polluted city in the world on Sunday, according to the firm IQAir, a specialist in pollution measurement. The level of PM2.5 microparticles, so tiny that they can penetrate the blood, reached on Sunday nearly 40 times the maximum level recommended by the World Health Organization, again according to IQAir.

A study published by the medical journal The Lancet in 2020 estimated that pollution in India had caused nearly 1.7 million deaths in the country the previous year, including 17,500 in the capital.