{"id":99441,"date":"2025-10-23T14:47:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/99441\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T14:47:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:47:16","slug":"air-pollution-hits-severe-level-in-new-delhi-after-festival-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/99441\/","title":{"rendered":"Air pollution hits \u2018severe\u2019 level in New Delhi after festival celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thick smog blanketed India\u2019s capital on Tuesday, a day after millions celebrated the Hindu festival of Diwali with fireworks that sent air pollution levels soaring to hazardous levels.<\/p>\n

Revellers in New Delhi burst firecrackers late into Monday night, filling the air with smoke and fine particles that mixed with seasonal pollution and stagnant weather conditions.<\/p>\n

By Tuesday morning, the city\u2019s Air Quality Index had climbed above 350 in several neighbourhoods, a level considered \u201csevere\u201d and dangerous to breathe, according to the World Health Organisation\u2019s daily recommended maximum exposure.<\/p>\n

Visibility also dropped in some parts of the city as a grey haze enveloped streets, high-rises and historical monuments.<\/p>\n

\"AA cyclist pedals through morning smog (Manish Swarup\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen anything like this before. We can\u2019t see anything here because of pollution,\u201d said Vedant Pachkande, a tourist visiting New Delhi.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s top court last week eased a blanket ban on firecrackers in New Delhi during Diwali, allowing limited use of \u201cgreen firecrackers\u201d that emit fewer pollutants.<\/p>\n

Developed by federal research institutes, they are designed to cut particulate and gas emissions by about 30%. The court said they could be used during specific hours from Saturday to Tuesday but like past years the rule was mostly flouted.<\/p>\n

New Delhi and its metropolitan region \u2014 home to more than 30 million people \u2014 routinely ranks among the world\u2019s most-polluted cities during the winter when widespread Diwali fireworks coincide with cooler weather and smoke from crop residue fires set by farmers in nearby states.<\/p>\n

Authorities in New Delhi have implemented a set of measures to curb pollution levels, which include limits on construction activity and restrictions on diesel generators. But environmentalists say long-term solutions, such as cleaner energy and stricter vehicle-emission controls, are needed to prevent the annual crisis.<\/p>\n

\"IndiaPeople walk through an overhead bridge amidst morning smog (Manish Swarup\/AP)\n<\/p>\n

Rising pollution also cuts the amount of sunshine India receives, a recent study found.<\/p>\n

Indian scientists have found that sunshine hours \u2014 the time strong sunlight reaches the Earth \u2014 have steadily declined across most of India due to rising air pollution, according to a study published this month in Scientific Reports, a journal by Nature Portfolio. The researchers attributed the drop to increasing aerosols \u2014 tiny particles from industrial emissions, biomass burning and vehicle pollution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a greater impact in more polluted regions such as northern India,\u201d said Manoj K Srivastava, a scientist at Banaras Hindu University and one of the study\u2019s authors.<\/p>\n

Mr Srivastava said the reduction in sunshine can affect the amount of solar power India can generate as well as the country\u2019s agricultural productivity apart from impacting the local environment and people\u2019s health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thick smog blanketed India\u2019s capital on Tuesday, a day after millions celebrated the Hindu festival of Diwali with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-99441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}