India's Capital Shuts All Primary Schools Due to Smog

Visitors look toward the Taj Mahal through morning air pollution and fog in Agra, India, November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Visitors look toward the Taj Mahal through morning air pollution and fog in Agra, India, November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
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India's Capital Shuts All Primary Schools Due to Smog

Visitors look toward the Taj Mahal through morning air pollution and fog in Agra, India, November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Visitors look toward the Taj Mahal through morning air pollution and fog in Agra, India, November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

India's capital New Delhi ordered all primary schools to cease in-person classes until further notice on Thursday night due to worsening smog in the sprawling megacity.

New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter.

The smog is blamed for thousands of premature deaths each year and is an annual source of misery for the capital's residents, with various piecemeal government initiatives failing to measurably address the problem.

"Due to rising pollution levels, all primary schools in Delhi will be shifting to online classes, until further directions," chief minister Atishi, who goes by one name, announced on social media platform X.

TRENDINGSchools are often shut during the worst weeks of the annual smog crisis, which also prompts numerous other disruptions across the city, AFP reported.

Authorities also regularly impose bans on construction activity and restrict diesel-powered goods trucks from other parts of the country in an effort to alleviate the toxic clouds blanketing the capital.

Grey skies and acrid fumes have made life a misery for New Delhi's inhabitants this week.

Levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- were recorded more than 50 times above the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum on Wednesday.

New Delhi is covered in acrid smog each year, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers elsewhere in India to clear their fields for ploughing, as well as factories and traffic fumes.

Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants each winter, stretching from mid-October until at least January.

India's Supreme Court last month ruled that clean air was a fundamental human right, ordering both the central government and state-level authorities to take action.

But critics say arguments between rival politicians heading neighboring states -- as well as between central and state-level authorities -- have compounded the problem.

Politicians are accused of not wanting to anger key figures in their constituencies, particularly powerful farming groups.

New Delhi authorities have launched several initiatives to tackle pollution, which have done little in practice.

Government trucks are regularly used to spray water to briefly dampen the pollution.

A new scheme unveiled this month to use three small drones to spray water mist was derided by critics as another "band-aid" solution to a public health crisis.

A study in The Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths to air pollution in the world's most populous country in 2019.

The choking carbon smog across New Delhi came as researchers warned that planet-warming fossil fuel emissions would hit a record high this year, according to new findings from an international network of scientists at the Global Carbon Project.



Shrouded in Smog, Delhi Pollution Reading Is the Highest This Year

Thick smog engulfs the Kartavya Path near India Gate in New Delhi on November 18, 2024. (AFP)
Thick smog engulfs the Kartavya Path near India Gate in New Delhi on November 18, 2024. (AFP)
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Shrouded in Smog, Delhi Pollution Reading Is the Highest This Year

Thick smog engulfs the Kartavya Path near India Gate in New Delhi on November 18, 2024. (AFP)
Thick smog engulfs the Kartavya Path near India Gate in New Delhi on November 18, 2024. (AFP)

A thick blanket of toxic smog engulfed most parts of northern India on Monday and readings of air quality in the capital New Delhi hit their highest this year after dense fog overnight.

The smog, a toxic blend of smoke and fog, happens each year in winter as cold air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from illegal farm fires in some surrounding states.

Visibility dropped to 100 m (109 yards) in Delhi and Chandigarh, a city northwest of the capital, but authorities said flights and trains continued to operate with some delays.

India's pollution control authority said the national capital territory's 24-hour air quality index (AQI) reading was at 484, classified as "severe plus", the highest this year.

According to Swiss group IQAir's live rankings, New Delhi was the most polluted city in the world with the air quality at a "hazardous" 1,081 and the concentration of PM2.5 - particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter that can be carried into lungs, causing deadly diseases and cardiac issues - was 130.9 times the World Health Organisation's recommended levels.

Experts say the scores vary because of a difference in the scale countries adopt to convert pollutant concentrations into AQI, and so the same quantity of a specific pollutant may be translated as different AQI scores in different countries.

Delhi authorities directed all schools to move classes online and tightened restrictions on construction activities and vehicle movements, citing unfavourable meteorological conditions and low wind speed.

Farm fires - where stubble left after harvesting rice is burnt to clear fields - have contributed as much as 40% of the pollution in Delhi, SAFAR, a weather forecasting agency under the ministry of earth sciences has said.

Satellites detected 1,334 such events in six states on Sunday, the most in the last four days, according to India's Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space.

Despite the polluted air, many residents continued their daily routines. Many buildings were barely visible, including Delhi's iconic India Gate.

"Morning walk usually feels good, but now the air is polluted and we're forced to wear a mask... There is a burning sensation in the eyes and slight difficulty in breathing," Akshay Pathak, a resident of the city told the ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake.

India's weather department has forecast "dense to very dense fog" for the northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan for Monday.