Toxic smog blankets New Delhi, disrupting travel and plunging air quality to hazardous levels

By RAJESH ROY and SIBI ARASU NEW DELHI AP Dense toxic smog blanketed India s capital on Monday pushing air litter levels to their worst levels in weeks disrupting movement and causing personnel to impose the strictest containment measures Related Articles How Ramsey County is making its ice rinks smarter and greener DNR buys nearly acres in northern Minnesota Trump administration delays decision on federal protections for monarch butterflies Environment change is straining Alaska s Arctic A new mining road may push the region past the brink Cook County a growing hub for astrotourism More than flights were cancelled and several dozens delayed Over trains arriving and departing from New Delhi were delayed by several hours administration stated Healthcare experts warned residents to avoid all outdoor engagements as hospitals revealed an influx of patients with breathing difficulties and eye irritation New Delhi is a gas chamber right now Air purifiers can help only a bit so it s high time the ruling body comes up with certain permanent solutions announced Naresh Dang a physician at Max Healthcare Delhi s air waste levels have remained at what the federal regime calls a severe level for the last two days which the ruling body says can cause respiratory effects to healthy people and seriously affect the healthcare of people with heart or lung complaint On Sunday official index readings were over at several monitoring stations up from on Saturday and the highest so far this winter season as per material from Central Impurity Control Board On Monday it stood at Readings below are considered good During periods of severe air garbage the executive advises people to avoid going outdoors as much as practicable and wear N masks when going outside Children pregnant women elderly and people with pre-existing respiratory or cardiovascular conditions are at higher menace and administrators advise them to be extra cautious I have never seen this kind of trash ever Last year I came to Delhi it was polluted This year it is more polluted I can feel the smoke while I breathe the air disclosed Tiam Patel a tourist Traffic moves through dense smog in the morning in New Delhi India Monday Dec AP Photo To stem corruption Indian administration have banned construction exercises and restricted use of diesel generators and cars Water sprinklers have been deployed to control the haze Schools and offices are allowing a large number of students and workers to stay home But environmentalists say that the country s air contamination predicament requires long-term changes New Delhi and its surrounding region home to more than million people routinely rank among the world s majority polluted India has six of the world s the greater part polluted cities and New Delhi is the greater part polluted national capital according to a analysis from Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database IQAir earlier this year Air quality worsens in New Delhi every winter as farmers burn crop residue in nearby states and cooler temperatures trap the smoke which mixes with waste from vehicles construction activity and industrial emissions Waste levels often reach times higher than the World Fitness Organization s safe limit People walk through a constituents park in a dense smog-covered morning in New Delhi India Monday Dec AP Photo But Vimlendu Jha a Delhi based environmentalist noted that the air is not healthy even at other times of year Delhi s air doesn t get cleaner at all we only see it visibly from October to December but the reality is that it remains polluted through the year he noted Earlier this month residents of New Delhi staged protests to express frustration and anger about the regime s failure to address toxicity A inquiry last year by clinical journal Lancet linked long term exposure to polluted air to million additional deaths every year in India A man pushes a cycle cart in a smog-covered morning in New Delhi India Monday Dec AP Photo Piyush Nagpal Deaths related to air defilement are not being counted And the reason why its not being counted is because there are no systematic mechanisms to do so explained Shweta Narayan a campaign lead at the Global Setting and Robustness Alliance Indian officials in October carried out a controversial cloud-seeding experiment over smog-choked New Delhi to induce rainfall and clear the city s toxic air The experiment ended without rainfall Arasu stated from Bengaluru India AP video journalist Piyush Nagpal contributed to the overview