Seasonal fires and a plethora of air pollutants are shrouding skies across northern India, causing very unhealthy air quality levels in New Delhi, prompting school closures. Advisories urge residents to avoid outdoor activities in the city, which has been engulfed in toxic smog since early November.
“The smoke has spread to the Bay of Bengal,” stated Hiren Jethva, an aerosol scientist at Morgan State University and NASA. While the fire activity lags behind previous years, Jethva noted that it’s still enough to cause severe air quality issues in the vicinity of the burning region.
The dense cloud of smoke pollution stretching across northern India was observable on NASA satellite images.
New Delhi’s air quality index for PM2.5, a hazardous particulate known as particulate matter 2.5, climbed to 285, categorized as “very unhealthy” on Thursday, which is the second most severe level, according to the U.S. Embassy’s data. These tiny pollutants, one-thirtieth the width of a human hair, can penetrate our lungs and bloodstream, leading to heart disease or lung cancer.
This decline in air quality, particularly in New Delhi, occurs annually in the months preceding winter. Each November, farmers in northwestern India burn excess paddy straw after the rice harvest to prepare the land for the next crop — a practice called stubble burning. The resulting smoke spreads across the region, including India’s capital city New Delhi, home to almost 35 million people.
The magnitude of smoke pollution results from “farm fires in the northwest, particularly in the states of Punjab and Haryana,” said Jethva, noting that fire activity in Haryana is lower this year. “It happens every year.”
Crop fires exacerbate the array of hazardous pollution sources in the area, which includes vehicles, industrial activities, and fires for heating and cooking. Dust blowing in from the Thar Desert to the west can also contribute to atmospheric pollution.
The diminished air quality has led to the closure of schools across the region and in Pakistan, where heightened air pollution has also been experienced. Local authorities have shut down schools and extended the upcoming winter break, while some have turned to virtual learning instead.
