Crowds have demonstrated in New Delhi calling for action as the Indian capital faces another winter engulfed in smog.
Pollution levels in New Delhi surged again on Monday morning as the city was immersed in a thick smog. The annual degradation of air quality in the capital to harmful levels has led to rare protests.
On Sunday, demonstrators mounted a rally at the city’s India Gate monument to demand action over the lethal pollution that envelops the area each year.
Crowds held up banners and chanted slogans while some disrupted traffic. Police officers detained some of the protesters by putting them on buses and dispersed others.
By Monday morning, the city’s air pollution index had surpassed 350, squarely landing in the range classified as “very poor” by India’s Central Pollution Control Board.
Anything below 100 is considered good or satisfactory, while an index of more than 400 is classified as “severe”.
Some areas of the Indian capital experienced an index of more than 400 early on Monday morning as a thick blanket of smog was trapped over the city amid falling temperatures.
India has six of the 10 most polluted cities globally and 13 of the top 20. New Delhi is the most polluted capital city in the world, according to the Switzerland-based air quality monitor IQAir.
Air quality dramatically deteriorates in the city every year as the cold season approaches.
The smoke created by farmers burning crop residue in nearby states blows into the capital and is trapped by the cooler temperatures.
As it mixes with vehicle and industrial emissions, the resulting smog causes respiratory illnesses and has become a key factor in thousands of deaths each year.
Efforts to prevent the annual envelopment have struggled to have a significant effect.
The authorities have launched a tiered emergency system that restricts construction, bans diesel generators, and limits vehicle entry when pollution hits severe levels.
The government has also introduced crop-burning control subsidies with limited success.
A cloud seeding effort last month failed to trigger artificial rain and cut pollution levels.
“The right to clean air is a basic human right,” Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party, wrote in a post on X, criticising how the protesters were treated.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa, environment minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party, said the government “will continue every possible effort” to prevent pollution.
