Indian capital gasps under choking smog

New Delhi's 'unbearable' air pollution turns into the worst in three years

NEW DELHI - Millions of people in India's capital started the week on Monday choking through "eye-burning" smog. In response, schools have been closed, cars ordered off roads and construction halted.

A poisonous haze envelops New Delhi every winter, the product of vehicle fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural burning in neighboring states.

But the current crisis has turned into the worst in three years. New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called for a range of measures to fight what he described as "unbearable pollution".

"There is smoke everywhere and people, including youngsters, kids, elderly are finding it difficult to breathe," Kejriwal said in a Twitter video on Sunday.

"Eyes are burning. Pollution is that bad."

Kejriwal's government ordered half the city's private cars to be taken off the road for the next two weeks, based on an odd-even license plate system.

The system will restrict private vehicles with odd-number license plates to driving on odd dates while even-numbered plates are allowed on even-numbered dates. The restrictions were implemented twice in 2016 but remain controversial as critics have debated whether they were effective.

The state-run Central Pollution Control Board's air quality index for New Delhi was "severe" at 436, about nine times the recommended maximum.

Traffic police officers, wearing protective masks, signaled cars to stop if they were not following the temporary rule. Kejriwal appealed for residents to follow the rule and for private taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers to support it.

Authorities said almost 1.2 million registered vehicles in Delhi will be off-road every day during the two-week restrictions. Kejriwal said authorities were also distributing face masks to schoolchildren.

Schools, which were closed last Friday, remained shut on Monday. Citywide construction was halted until Tuesday in Delhi and surrounding areas.

Delhi residents had a mixed response to the emergency rules. Many outdoors were not wearing protective masks.

"I don't think this odd-even scheme will do anything. It's mostly the stubble burning in the states of Punjab and Haryana which contributes to the pollution, and industrial pollution is also high," said Ajay Jasra, a Delhi resident.

Some distraught over the pollution say they wanted to leave the city of more than 20 million people due to its poor air quality.

"I feel like moving out as well because I'm young and I'm still on a stage of building up my life and my career," Delhi resident Divyam Mathur said.

Other parts of the country have also been choked by smog, the government's Central Pollution Control Board said on Sunday.

Authorities brought a van with an air purifier to the Taj Mahal, the country's top tourist site 250 kilometers south of Delhi. They feared the pollution was damaging the 17th-century marble mausoleum, the Press Trust of India reported.

A group of environmentalists wrote to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, urging him to "take leadership" in the crisis.

Experts warn that both state and national governments need to go beyond short-term remedies and tackle major pollution sources if air quality is to improve in the long term.

Stopgap solutions "can't be a substitute for addressing the major long-term chronic sources of air pollution", said Daniel Cass, senior vice-president for environmental health of global nonprofit Vital Strategies.

He said emissions restrictions should be imposed on motorbikes and scooters, which are heavily used in Delhi but exempted from the odd-even system, and called for more public transport investment.

Changing agricultural practices, switching sources of electricity generation and accelerating the conversion of home-heating fuel from charcoal to natural gas are also key measures in the pollution fight, Cass said.

AFP - AP