Various government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem; Smoke causes thousands of premature deaths every year and particularly affects the health of children and the elderly.

Individual monitoring stations recorded even higher levels; one recorded PM2.5 pollutant as 980; this was 65 times the WHO maximum.

“My eyes have been burning for the last few days,” said Subodh Kumar, a 30-year-old rickshaw driver.

“I have to be on the road, whether there is pollution or not, where else am I going to go?” he said, as he stopped eating breakfast at a roadside stall.