New Delhi residents are suffocating again, trapped by an episode of extreme pollution

The horizon is completely blocked, it is barely possible to distinguish the emblematic buildings of the capital, lost in the smog. The air is unbreathable, attacks the eyes, the lungs, the throat, causes throbbing headaches. "My eyes burn and when I gargle with hot salt water, as my doctor advised me to clean my throat, I spit black," says a taxi driver, who spends a good part of his day outdoors.

New Delhi and neighboring cities, around 30 million inhabitants, have been suffocating since November 5 in a cocktail of pollutants made up of fine particles, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and ozone. The Indian metropolis recorded its worst air quality index of the season on November 11 and 12 – 471 on a measurement scale of 500. The situation is so serious that the justice system is considering a mandatory two-day confinement of the population of the region. Such a measure had never been mentioned before.

Despite the health emergency, neither the federal government nor the regional government reacted. Seized by a student from the capital, the Supreme Court, during a hearing on Saturday November 13, very severely condemned the apathy of the leaders and demanded immediate measures, such as the confinement of the population or the stopping of automobile traffic. . “Even inside the houses, we are forced to wear masks. The situation is extremely serious (…). Take immediate and urgent action. Impose a two-day lockdown, if necessary. How will people be able to live otherwise? “, got carried away a magistrate of the highest jurisdiction of the country.

The authorities' inaction is all the more culpable in that the crisis was foreseeable: this has been the case every autumn for nearly ten years. All the elements combine to asphyxiate the capital: the agricultural burns which begin in the fall in the neighboring regions, the burning of waste, the great Hindu festival of Divali - with its millions of candles and firecrackers, and the intense traffic automobile it generates. Finally, the climatic conditions, the cold of the night and the absence of wind which trap the pollutants on the ground.

Closure of schools

According to NASA satellite images, which helped to count the fires in the states of Punjab and Haryana, between November ¹ and 13, the cumulative number of fires in the fields stood at 57 263, a record since 2012. The authorities are unable to regulate this practice, which is prohibited, which consists of getting rid of the residues of the rice harvest, the stubble, by burning them, in order to be able to sow faster. Aid for mechanization was put in place, but it fueled corruption. A biodegradable product has been developed, but farmers consider the process too slow.

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