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Primary Schools Empty as Smog Persists in Indian Capital

A street is shrouded in smog amid air pollution, during a morning in Multan, Pakistan, November 15, 2024. REUTERS/Quratulain Asim
A street is shrouded in smog amid air pollution, during a morning in Multan, Pakistan, November 15, 2024. REUTERS/Quratulain Asim
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Primary Schools Empty as Smog Persists in Indian Capital

A street is shrouded in smog amid air pollution, during a morning in Multan, Pakistan, November 15, 2024. REUTERS/Quratulain Asim
A street is shrouded in smog amid air pollution, during a morning in Multan, Pakistan, November 15, 2024. REUTERS/Quratulain Asim

Residents in India's capital New Delhi again woke under a blanket of choking smog on Friday, a day after authorities closed primary schools and imposed measures aimed at alleviating the annual crisis.

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 residents, with various piecemeal government initiatives failing to measurably address the problem.

All primary schools were shut by government order on Thursday night with young pupils -- particularly vulnerable to smog-related ailments due to their age -- instead moving to online lessons.

"I have an eight-year-old kid and he has been suffering from a cough the past couple of days," Delhi resident Satraj, who did not give his surname, told AFP on the streets of the capital.

"The government did the right thing by shutting down schools."

Thursday's edict also banned construction work, ordered drivers of older diesel-powered vehicles to stay off the streets and directed water trucks to spray roads in a bid to clear dust particles from the air.

Delhi's air quality nonetheless deteriorated to "hazardous" levels for the fourth consecutive day this week, according to monitoring firm IQAir.

Levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- were recorded more than 26 times above the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum shortly after dawn on Friday.

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Varieties

Parts of Great Barrier Reef Suffer Highest Coral Mortality on Record

FILE PHOTO: Peter Gash, owner and manager of the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, snorkels during an inspection of the reef's condition in an area called the 'Coral Gardens' located at Lady Elliot Island, north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Peter Gash, owner and manager of the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, snorkels during an inspection of the reef's condition in an area called the 'Coral Gardens' located at Lady Elliot Island, north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo
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Parts of Great Barrier Reef Suffer Highest Coral Mortality on Record

FILE PHOTO: Peter Gash, owner and manager of the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, snorkels during an inspection of the reef's condition in an area called the 'Coral Gardens' located at Lady Elliot Island, north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Peter Gash, owner and manager of the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, snorkels during an inspection of the reef's condition in an area called the 'Coral Gardens' located at Lady Elliot Island, north-east of the town of Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo

Parts of the Great Barrier Reef have suffered the highest coral mortality on record, Australian research showed Tuesday, with scientists fearing the rest of it has suffered a similar fate.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science said surveys of 12 reefs found up to 72 percent coral mortality, thanks to a summer of mass bleaching, two cyclones, and flooding, reported AFP.
In one northern section of the reef, about a third of hard coral had died, the "largest annual decline" in 39 years of government monitoring, the agency said.
Often dubbed the world's largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef is a 2,300 kilometer (1,400-mile) expanse of tropical corals that house a stunning array of biodiversity.
But repeated mass bleaching events have threatened to rob the tourist drawcard of its wonder, turning banks of once-vibrant corals into a sickly shade of white.
Bleaching occurs when water temperatures rise and the coral expels microscopic algae, known as zooxanthellae, to survive.
If high temperatures persist, the coral can eventually turn white and die.
This year had already been confirmed as the fifth mass bleaching on the reef in the past eight years.
But this latest survey also found a rapid growing type of coral -- known as acropora -- had suffered the highest rate of death.
This coral is quick to grow, but one of the first to bleach.
'Worst fears'
Lead researcher Mike Emslie told public broadcaster ABC the past summer was "one of the most severe events" across the Great Barrier Reef, with heat stress levels surpassing previous events.
"These are serious impacts. These are serious losses," he said.
WWF-Australia's head of oceans Richard Leck said the initial surveys confirmed his "worst fears".
"The Great Barrier Reef can bounce back but there are limits to its resilience," he said.
"It can't get repeatedly hammered like this. We are fast approaching a tipping point."
Leck added the area surveyed was "relatively small" and feared that when the full report was released next year "similar levels of mortality" would be observed.
He said that it reinforced Australia's need to commit to stronger emission reduction targets of at least 90 percent below 2005 levels by 2035 and move away from fossil fuels.
The country is one of the world's largest gas and coal exporters and has only recently set targets to become carbon neutral.