It’s like a tragedy repeating itself: the Indian capital is once again asphyxiated by pollution. Once again, schools were closed this Friday, November 3 in Delhi, due to the dangerous level of air pollution, materialized by a yellowish and toxic fog. According to the Swiss Air Quality Monitoring Society, IQAir, the level of PM 2.5 particles, the most dangerous, is 35 times higher than the maximum level set by the World Health Organization. Particularly fine, these particles penetrate deep into the respiratory tract and some can even pass through the vessels and end up in the blood circulation.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced late Thursday evening that all primary schools would be closed in the capital for at least two days. “In light of rising pollution levels, all government and private primary schools in Delhi will remain closed for the next two days”he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
1.67 million deaths per year in India
Delhi, one of the largest urban areas on the planet, is consistently ranked among the most polluted cities in the world. The toxic fog, fueled by agricultural burning, industrial emissions and road transport, is stagnating in the megacity of 30 million inhabitants.
The problem peaks in early winter, around the Hindu festival of Diwali, which coincides with the weeks when tens of thousands of farmers in northern India burn rice stubble. The practice is one of the main causes of the pollution that chokes Delhi every year and persists despite efforts by authorities to persuade farmers to use other land clearing methods and threats of punitive measures. The authorities regularly announce different plans to reduce pollution, in particular by suspending construction work, but without much result.
A study of The Lancet, a British medical journal, published in 2020, attributed 1.67 million deaths, a year earlier, to air pollution in India, including nearly 17,500 in the capital. India is heavily dependent on coal, which emits terribly fine particles, for its energy production. The country has seen its per capita emissions increase by 29% over the past seven years and is reluctant to implement policies to phase out polluting fossil fuels.