NEW DELHI: In an effort to address the deteriorating air quality that has caused airline delays and veiled the Taj Mahal, the Indian government has prohibited non-essential development in New Delhi, the most polluted capital in the world, and advised citizens to refrain from using coal for heating.
The new measures, which include mechanized sweeping to assist settle dust and sprinkling roads with water containing dust suppressants, will take effect on Friday morning.
Atishi, the chief minister of Delhi, who goes by a single name, has ordered all elementary schools to switch to online instruction.
According to a government statement released Thursday, they also include a prohibition on non-essential development and a call for people to take public transportation more often and refrain from heating with coal and wood. The statement did not specify how long the measures would be in effect.
The Taj Mahal is hidden by deadly haze, thus the Indian government is tightening anti-pollution measures.
The Taj Mahal, India’s famous monument to love, is located approximately 220 kilometers (136 miles) from New Delhi, while the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest place in Sikhism, is obscured by toxic haze. The air quality in Northern India has gotten worse over the past week.
According to realtime rankings maintained by Swiss group IQAir, New Delhi has the worst air quality of any capital in the world, with a severe level of 424. Every winter, the city struggles with smog, a poisonous mixture of smoke and fog, caused by chilly air that retains smoke, pollutants, and dust from unauthorized farm fires.
In the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana, stubble burning—a practice where stubble left after harvesting rice is burned to clear fields—is responsible for almost 38% of the pollution in New Delhi this year.
Flightradar24, a tracking website, reports that as of Thursday afternoon, haze caused delays in 88 percent of departures and 54 percent of arrivals on Delhi aircraft.
Conditions
Officials attributed the haze, which reduced visibility to 300 meters (980 feet) at the city’s international airport and forced flights to divert in zero visibility on Wednesday, to a combination of excessive pollution, humidity, calm winds, and a dip in temperature.
Hospitals saw an increase in patients, especially kids.
Sahab Ram, a pediatrician in Punjab’s Fazilka region, told news agency ANI that there has been a sharp spike in youngsters suffering from allergies, colds, and coughs, as well as an increase in severe asthma episodes.
According to weather officials, Delhi’s minimum temperature dropped from 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit) the day before to 16.1 degrees Celsius (61 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday. According to the earth sciences ministry, pollution in New Delhi is expected to remain in the “severe” category on Friday before easing to “very poor,” or an index score of 300 to 400.
According to the ministry’s website, the number of farm fires started this week to clear fields in northern India increased gradually, from 1,200 on Monday to over 2,300 on Wednesday. According to IQAir’s rankings, Lahore, the capital of Punjab, a state in eastern Pakistan, was named the most polluted city in the world on Thursday. This month, authorities there have also had to contend with dangerous air.
