Delhi air: Toxic smog greets residents of India's capital day before Diwali

Air pollution has worsened due to fireworks and smoke from farm fires

People wear masks while walking amid heavy smog in Rajpath, New Delhi. EPA

Delhi woke up to a thick blanket of toxic smog on Wednesday with experts warning pollution levels will worsen as residents of India's capital burst firecrackers during Diwali on Thursday and farmers in the neighbouring states burn crop stubble.

The Average Air Quality Index in the city was recorded at more than 300 at about 7am, according to the Central Pollution Control Board, India’s leading environmental watchdog. In some areas, the AQI had passed 300. An AQI above 300 is considered “poor” while anything above 500 is severe.

The city also reported a high level of fine particles measuring less than 2.5 microns that penetrate the lungs and bloodstream. Such particles are blamed for chronic respiratory and cardiac diseases. The concentration of particles was 212 microns per cubic metre on Wednesday, according to IQAir – a Swiss air quality technology company that analyses global air quality data.

The World Health Organisation in its revised guideline considers 5 µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre) as the safe level of exposure to particulate pollution. The situation is expected to worsen this week when the country will celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, on Thursday by setting off fireworks and using sparklers.

Vehicles are seen amid early morning smog near a market in New Delhi. Reuters

The sale and setting off of fireworks are banned by India’s top court, but rules are regularly breached despite warnings that such actions could lead to the deterioration in air quality levels.

New Delhi suffers from poor air pollution throughout the year but toxic air levels rise during winter due to emissions from fireworks and smoke from farm fires that shroud the city under a blanket of smog. The city has been experiencing high levels of toxic air levels since October with its Air Quality Index reaching emergency levels, with visibility dropping significantly in several areas.

A similar situation was seen in the nearby cities of Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad.

“My eyes are stinging, and I am coughing uncontrollably,” Pooja Kumari, who works in residential buildings in Noida, told The National. "The pollution gives me a headache and I feel heavy while walking. This happens every year around this time."

The Delhi government has also issued measures such as stopping unregistered construction and demolition activities at sites and mechanised sweeping of roads and cleaning. The government has threatened heavy fines for those breaching rules around the burning of waste. But it has also blamed a series of farm fires in neighbouring Haryana state for the high pollution levels.

Delhi Police has registered about 80 cases related to the sale and storage of fireworks and seized about 19,000kg of the explosives this week, the office of Delhi's Environment Minister, Gopal Rai, said.

A farmer burns straw stubble after harvesting a paddy crop in a field near the India-Pakistan border. AFP

Stubble burning is the practice where farmers burn paddy stubble to clear their fields for the next crop in the vast farmlands of Haryana and Punjab.

While the city suffers from air pollution throughout the year, the level rises in November with the onset of winter, when pollutants and smoke travel from Haryana and Punjab. Despite a ban on stubble burning, more than 2,000 cases of the practice have been reported in Punjab state since October. The numbers have dropped from last year with 51,000 cases reported.

The Commission for Air Quality Management, a central government panel that monitors air pollution and quality in Delhi has set up ‘flying squads’ to work with anti-pollution bodies in Punjab and Haryana to stop farmers from burning stubble or agricultural waste.

Experts, however, have said that the emissions from vehicles are the biggest contributor to particulate pollution in Delhi. They contributed up to 53 per cent to the city’s pollution between October and November 2022.