Schools were closed in the Indian capital on Friday due to dangerous air pollution that was manifested by a yellowish and toxic fog, authorities said.
According to Swiss air quality monitoring company IQAir, levels of PM 2.5 particles, the most dangerous, are 35 times higher than the maximum set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced late Thursday evening that all primary schools in the capital would remain closed for at least two days.
“In view of rising pollution, all government and private primary schools in Delhi will remain closed for the next two days,” Mr. Arvind Kejriwal announced on X (ex-Twitter).
Delhi, one of the largest urban areas in the world, is consistently ranked among the most polluted cities in the world.
The toxic fog, fueled by agricultural burning, industrial emissions and road traffic, is stagnating in the megacity with 30 million inhabitants.
The problem peaks at the start of winter, around the Hindu festival of Diwali, which coincides with weeks in which tens of thousands of farmers in northern India burn rice stubble.
The practice is a major cause of the pollution that chokes Delhi every year and continues despite authorities’ efforts to persuade farmers to adopt other land-clearing methods and threats of punitive action.
Authorities regularly announce various plans to reduce pollution, particularly by suspending construction work, but without much results.
A study published in 2020 by The Lancet, a British medical journal, attributed 1.67 million deaths to air pollution in India a year earlier, including nearly 17,500 in the capital.
India relies heavily on coal for energy production. The country has seen its per capita emissions rise by 29% over the past seven years and is reluctant to implement measures to phase out polluting fossil fuels.