It’s just a matter of time before pollution in the Indian capital New Delhi gradually explodes. Experts believe the capital is being transformed into a gas chamber that fills millions of lungs with dangerous air. It writes Independent.
Satellite images show large fires in fields in northern Indian states that make the air toxic. The fires will continue to burn for the next ten days to make room for the next batch of crops.
The large amounts of smoke are transported by the wind from the fields to the city of New Delhi, where the smoke enters as an additional element in the already heavily polluted city.
Not to be recognized
A person living in New Delhi – the world’s most polluted city – loses an average of ten years of his life due to the dangerous air. In addition, 22 of the 30 most polluted cities in the world are in India. Of the top ten, six of the cities are from India, according to a study from EPIC, the newspaper writes.
Triple health hazard
– Sounds like doomsday, right? People come into hospitals and clinics and say that they are breathless and heavy in the chest.
Rashmi Sama, a pulmonologist at one of India’s leading medical institutions, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi, told the newspaper.
She calls it a triple danger to the population who are already fighting a deadly cocktail of covid-19, broken lungs and seasonal flu.
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On November 4, millions of Indians celebrate the Hindu festival Diwali. One of the traditions is to light fireworks all over the country, even if it is illegal.
For several years, people have woken up the day after Diwali to smog, severe headaches and watery eyes while polluted air fills their homes.
– This is not a fictional crisis. The first signs of bad air appear in Delhi when people with normal lungs get a metallic taste in their mouth, start to get headaches and are more tired than usual, says Sama.
DANGEROUS SMOKE: several people set off fireworks in the streets during the Hindi festival Diwali, even though it is illegal. The smoke worsens the situation in the city with more dangerous smog in the air. Photo: Sajjad Hussain / AFP / NTB
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– Children inhale poison
In the town of Punjab, rice farmers Patiala, Gurpreet and Brajendra told the Independent that increased pressure and scrutiny by the federal government has marked the beginning of the end of farming and agriculture in India.
– Agriculture is on its way to the end in India. The machines for sustainable agricultural measures cost us half a million rupees, and we do not earn close to that, Gurpreet tells the newspaper.
Problem of enormous proportions
He also says he does not prefer to get the smoke from the fields into his village and house.
– Even my children breathe in this poison, but if I have to wait for the volunteers from the authorities to come and clear my field, I will wait for several weeks. I will have to burn away the old crops, he says.
– A public health emergency
While the horror scenario unfolds, environmental activists have reported red code for India.
– We should call this an emergency – a public health emergency. If a country like India, where one and a half million people die due to bad air, then this crisis is bigger than the corona crisis. The crisis must be accepted, recognized and acted upon, says environmental activist Vimlendu Jha to Independent.
Insane reduction after lockdown
The city is daily exposed to pollution from more than 12 million vehicles, constant dust from construction sites, smoke from more than 3,000 industrial buildings. This has led to the city’s air quality index being more than 300.
CHILDREN: Children are out playing football even though the air in the city is dangerous. Photo: Vipin Kumar / Hindustan Times / Shutterstock
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Still, politicians are not doing enough to stop it, Jha believes. He points out that the city is putting in place urgent measures in October, but that, according to Jha, is not enough.
– The conversation can not start at the end of a critical pollution level. You can not talk about air pollution in October. You have to do it all year round, Jha explains.
– They must act
The solutions to the authorities in Dehli are insufficient with regard to the severity of the crisis, say concerned environmentalists.
– Bad air is Delhi’s everyday reality, and in other parts of the world cities are closed when they have an air quality index of 300, but here we have normalized that people should breathe bad air, says Jha.
Worse than before the pandemic
As an attempt at a solution, the Indian government has invested in large towers to capture smog. They are located in several places in the city, but according to Jha this is not a good solution because according to him there is no evidence that this method works.
SMOG TOWER: The government has set up smog towers to catch smog. Environmental activists do not believe there is evidence that they work. Photo: Naveen Sharma / SOPA Images / Shutterstock / NTB
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– You can not just ask people to leave the car every year. They have already had information campaigns, but this does not hold because people are already proven. They have to act, says Jha.
Reena Gupta, who previously worked for the World Bank and is now an adviser to Delhi’s environment minister, says the crisis cannot be resolved until the authorities take responsibility for all the surrounding cities and states helping to save New Delhi.
– The truth is that the government does not take the environment seriously, she tells the newspaper.
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