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Residents of New Delhi struggle to breathe due to the air pollution there.
New Delhi, the most polluted metropolis in the world, already has terrible air quality, but Diwali celebrations frequently make it worse.
NEARBY — Abhinandan, 4, was having trouble breathing last month as Diwali fireworks tore through the air and illuminated the skies over India's capital region.
The yearly celebrations of Diwali, one of the most significant Hindu festivals in India, can make New Delhi's dismal air quality—the world's most polluted capital—even worse. Abhinandan started throwing up and coughing up mucous as more and more firecrackers were let off.
According to his father, journalist Abhishek Anand, "farmers started burning stubble after the October rains, and it got out of control on Diwali night."
Anand claimed that his son's respiratory problems, which first appeared when he was a year old and went away during the coronavirus epidemic when lockdowns reduced India's economic activity and the associated pollution, have returned this year.
The air continued to deteriorate after the fireworks stopped. By the first week of November, New Delhi's air quality index reached 472, a level that was both dangerous for those who already have health concerns and high enough to affect healthy people.
The reading hit 800 in certain parts of the city, according to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, a governing agency. The 20 million people who lived in New Delhi were primarily breathing smoke.
Anxiety and a sore throat awoke Delhi University student Garima Sudhan.
Even indoors, she remarked, it was impossible to breathe after Diwali. "I think it's getting harder to maintain mental calmness with the amount of pollution in the city. I'm having trouble falling asleep, and my restlessness has gotten worse.
Sudhan, who is from the northern part of Jammu & Kashmir, spent Diwali in the capital for the first time in three years.
She replied, "I try to go home because I'm afraid of the pollution in the city after Diwali. "But every year that goes by, it gets worse."
Sales of fireworks in the surrounding area boomed in anticipation of the first Diwali festivities sans Covid restrictions despite the city's officials banning them ahead of the event and even threatening up to six months in jail for their unauthorized usage.
The government takes no action, according to Sudhan. The city was "let choke."
An email requesting a comment from Delhi's environment minister, Gopal Rai, went unanswered.
Every fall, as farmers in neighboring states burn crop stubble to prepare fields for the upcoming planting season, the air quality in New Delhi, which is already harmed year-round by car and manufacturing pollution, deteriorates further. This problem then gets worse after Diwali. However, India, which is home to 35 of the world's 50 most polluted cities as determined by the Swiss technology company IQAir, is far from the only country where there are air quality issues.
According to experts, breathing in low-quality air raises the risk of lung cancer, heart disease, and respiratory infections.
In a study conducted by the community-based social network LocalCircles and released earlier this month, 4 out of every 5 households in India's capital region claimed to have had health issues related to pollution in the preceding few weeks. The poll discovered that 18% of the overall 19,000 respondents had already consulted a doctor.
Delhi officials issued an order from November 4 to November 9 to close primary schools and limit outdoor activities for older children due to the poor air quality. Employees of the local government were also forced to work remotely 50% of the time.
Students and school authorities also expressed their disapproval of the closures. According to Oxford Angel Public School administrator Neetu Garg, pupils from lower-income families might not have the necessary resources to study at home.
The majority of the students "roam or play outside, surrounded by smog and dust," she claimed.
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