Skip to footer

Citizens in India's capital protest smog, government inaction

Air pollution has become so toxic in New Delhi it triggered a public health emergency this week, closing schools and limiting the number of cars on the street.

|
Manish Swarup/AP
A man carries a child on his shoulder at a protest against alarming levels of pollution in New Delhi on Nov. 5, 2019. The city's residents are calling on the government to fix the air quality in the capital, the most polluted major city in the world.
  • By Mayank Bhardwaj Reuters

| New Delhi

Schools in India's capital New Delhi reopened on Wednesday after closing for two days due to a spike in air pollution that triggered a public health emergency and prompted protests by residents and environmental groups.

Children, many wearing face masks, returned to schools in New Delhi and its surrounding cities even as air pollution stayed at "unhealthy" levels in most parts of northern India, including the capital city.

India's weather office forecasts light rains on Wednesday and a downpour on Thursday. While drizzle could lead to a further deterioration in air quality, torrential rains tend to bring down pollution levels, which hit their highest levels of the year on Sunday.

The overall air quality across the city showed some improvement for the second consecutive day thanks to stronger winds which helped blow away some of the pollutants hanging in the atmosphere.

Authorities in New Delhi banished cars with number plates ending in an odd number on Monday in a bid to reduce the pollution, although politicians in the city of more than 20 million people, bickered over the causes of the pollution and who should take the blame for it.

Environmental experts say any increase in the burning of crop stubble in Punjab and Haryana states – part of India's farm belt that borders Delhi – would lead to an increase in pollution levels. The burning of crop residues have helped turn India's capital into the most polluted major city in the world.

On Tuesday night, more than 1,500 people gathered at India Gate, the war memorial at the center of Delhi, to protest persistently high pollution levels and demand action from the federal and the state governments.

"People are angry because it's a collective failure and politicians need to come together to chalk out a comprehensive plan to address this crisis," said Vimlendu Jha, an environmentalist who founded the activist group Swechha.

The air quality index measured by the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi stood at "unhealthy" levels of 177 on Wednesday, down from 331 on Tuesday morning.

Anything above 401 is classified as "severe." Air pollution at that level can seriously affect those with existing respiratory illnesses, and even those who are otherwise healthy.

This story was reported by Reuters.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Citizens in India's capital protest smog, government inaction
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2019/1106/Citizens-in-India-s-capital-protest-smog-government-inaction
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe