Liputan6.com, Jakarta – Last week, air quality in New Delhi, India reached very high levels. A haze of toxic smog is said to have blanketed the city, marking the start of the “air pollution season” that has become an annual disaster in the country’s capital.

Schools were closed and non-essential construction banned around Delhi as the city’s air quality index reached 500, 100 times the limit considered healthy by the World Health Organization (WHO). . Air quality in the city has declined over the past week.

This is due to a sharp increase in the number of farmers in the states of Haryana and Punjab who burn their fields during the sowing season. The situation is made worse by winds carrying pollutants to Delhi and falling temperatures, trapping particles.

Last week, cases of land fires in the state of Punjab increased by 740 percent, with more than a thousand fires recorded in a day. Other causes of pollution in the city are car emissions, construction and the burning of waste in waste treatment plants.

Delhi’s pollution early warning system reportedly failed to predict further damage on the evening of Thursday, November 2, 2023. Delhi, with a population of around 33 million, is regularly classified as the city the most polluted in the world.

According to this year’s Air Quality Index, compiled by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, Delhi residents could see their lives reduced by 11.9 years due to poor air quality. the air they breathe.