This combination of images (above) shows pedestrians walking along Kartavya Road covered in heavy smoke near India Gate in New Delhi yesterday, and pedestrians walking under a clear blue sky at the same location on September 26, 2024. (AFP)

India’s capital New Delhi switched schools to online classes yesterday until further notice as worsening toxic smog exceeded 60 times the daily maximum recommended by the World Health Organization.
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.
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants (dangerous, cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs) reached 921 micrograms per cubic meter at noon yesterday, according to IQAir pollution monitors, with a reading above 15 in a 24-hour period considered unhealthy. by WHO. Individual monitoring stations noted even higher levels; A government-run monitor recorded PM2.5 pollutants at 1117 micrograms, 74 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.
“We don’t have the option of staying at home… our livelihood, our food, our life; everything is out there.”
Pollution has spread to parts of northern India; Tourists at the Taj Mahal in Agra took photos of the nearly invisible white marble monument shrouded in clouds, overwhelming residents of Lahore in neighboring Pakistan.
Thick gray and acrid smoke choked New Delhi, where IQAir’s listing conditions were “dangerous”. The city is covered in toxic smoke every year, and this is primarily blamed on farmers in neighboring regions burning stubble to clear their fields for plowing, as well as smoke from factories and traffic.
A report by The New York Times this month, based on samples collected over five years, found that hazardous fumes were also emitting from a power plant burning mountains of city landfill garbage. Primary schools were ordered to stop face-to-face classes on Thursday, along with a host of other restrictions introduced yesterday, including limits on diesel-powered trucks and construction.
Officials hope that by keeping children at home, traffic will decrease.
The government has urged children and the elderly, as well as those with lung or heart problems, to “stay indoors as much as possible”.
Air filters are too expensive for most people, and most do not have homes that can effectively protect them from the misery of dangerous, foul-smelling air.
“Wealthy ministers and officials can afford to stay in their homes, not ordinary people like us,” said Rinku Kumar, a 45-year-old rickshaw taxi driver.
“Who can afford an air purifier when paying monthly bills is so difficult?” India’s Supreme Court ruled last month that clean air is a fundamental human right, ordering both the central government and state-level authorities to take action. It is meeting again to discuss the lack of progress on the health crisis. Critics say squabbles between central and state-level officials, as well as rival politicians heading neighboring states, have further compounded the problem.