Delhi, the capital of India, has ordered all primary schools to stop holding in-person classes till further notice due to the growing pollution in the expansive metropolis. Toxic haze even covered the Taj Mahal, the nation's monument to love, 220 kilometers away.

With a population of over 30 million, Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area routinely rank highest in the world for winter air pollution.

Residents of the capital endure an annual source of sorrow due to the smog, which is attributed to thousands of premature deaths annually. Various piecemeal government measures have failed to adequately solve the issue.

“Due to rising pollution levels, all primary schools in Delhi will be shifting to online classes, until further directions,” chief minister Atishi, who goes by one name, announced on the social media platform X on Thursday.

Schools are often shut during the worst weeks of the annual smog crisis, which also prompts numerous other disruptions across the city.

The government on Thursday also banned all non-essential construction and appealed to citizens to use more public transport and avoid using coal and wood for heating, without saying how long the measures would be in place.

Air quality in northern India has deteriorated over the past week. Levels of PM2.5 pollutants – dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs – were recorded more than 50 times above the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum on Wednesday.

The smog is primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers elsewhere in India to clear their fields for ploughing, as well as factories and traffic fumes.

Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants each winter, stretching from mid-October until at least January.

India’s supreme court this October ruled that clean air was a fundamental human right, ordering both the central government and state-level authorities to take action.

But critics say arguments between rival politicians heading neighbouring states – as well as between central and state-level authorities – have compounded the problem.

Politicians are accused of not wanting to anger key figures in their constituencies, particularly powerful farming groups.

Delhi authorities have launched several initiatives to tackle pollution, which have done little in practice.

A new scheme unveiled this month to use three small drones to spray water mist was derided by critics as another “band-aid” solution to a public health crisis.

A study in The Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67m premature deaths to air pollution in the world’s most populous country in 2019.

The choking smog across Delhi came as researchers warned that planet-warming fossil fuel emissions would hit a record high this year, according to new findings from an international network of scientists at the Global Carbon Project.

Source: Agence France-Presse and Reuters