India’s capital New Delhi has a pollution emergency on its hands. For the last one week or so, the citizens of Delhi are choking as the level of air pollution has increased several times beyond the safe limit.
The outcome of crop stubble burning in the adjacent states such as Punjab and Haryana in addition to the vehicular emissions and industrial pollution has caused some serious havoc for the Delhiites in the early winter season.
Such is the situation that women boxers training for a world championship, starting in Delhi this week are wearing surgical masks, scarves and even T-shirts across their mouths.
Observing the state of affairs from close quarters, veteran India and Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir on Tuesday (November 13) took to Twitter and wrote: “My head hangs in shame!!! But who cares? @AamAadmiParty @BJP4India”.
My head hangs in shame!!! But who cares? @AamAadmiParty @BJP4India https://t.co/D9sejUXKvW
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) November 13, 2018
The weather, with no wind to blow the pollution away, has aggravated the problem in one of the world's most polluted cities.
“My family is worried. We know it is not good for our body. It's difficult. I wear a scarf but I have to get accustomed,” Bulgarian Stanimira Petrova, a gold-medallist in the bantamweight category in the championships in 2014, told Reuters.
On Tuesday, the level of deadly particulate matter PM 2.5 that lodge deep in the lungs was at 407, about eight times the safe limit, according to a reading by the pollution control board.
