Thick fog covers major cities in northwest India. Since the beginning of the month, residents have suffered a new worrying episode of pollution which is likely to last.
Cities shrouded in pollution, enveloped in toxic fog, residents forced to wear masks… Since Friday November 3, northern India has been confronted with almost unbreathable air. “We don’t breathe the air, but we smoke it”confides Jyoti Pande Lavakare, an environmental activist, in the New York Times. Every year, New Delhi and neighboring areas face a new season of “air pollution”. “Smog” (English contraction of “smoke”, smoke, and “fog”, fog) covers the Indian capital from October, which is already among the most polluted cities on the planet in normal times.
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The Swiss company IQair, a specialist in air quality measurement, defined the level of pollution in New Delhi as “dangerous” between Friday November 3 and Sunday November 5. Microparticles known as PM2.5, classified as carcinogenic, in fact reached thresholds on Sunday 40 times higher than the maximum level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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Faced with this level of pollution, the regional government of New Delhi has asked residents of the capital to work from home and use carpooling. The Minister of Education of the State of Delhi announced on X (formerly Twitter) the closure of certain educational establishments: “As pollution levels continue to be very high, primary schools in Delhi will remain closed till November 10.”
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Several factors explain this spectacular deterioration in air quality. It is first attributed to the proliferation of smoke coming from the countryside. Farmers in the agricultural regions of Punjab and Haryana that border the capital are burning stubble and straw left after harvests in the fields, explains Al-Jazeera, a traditional method allowing farmers to quickly clean the fields.
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Other internal factors are responsible for this extreme air pollution. Growing road traffic and the burning of coal or wood are all causes that are affecting air quality in New Delhi, the site highlights. Reporterre. This episode of extraordinary pollution generally lasts four months, specifies The world.
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The mild temperatures at the end of winter and the winds help to drive away some of the pollution that covers the Indian capital. A public health scourge, air pollution is responsible for the deaths in 2019 of nearly 1.7 million people in the country, according to a study published in the scientific journal The Lancet.
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