Delhi’s air pollution is so bad that it’s sometimes hard to discern anything more than a few metres in front of you. And it is affecting people’s health. Breathing is uncomfortable, and one of us (Komali) developed rashes and red eyes on a recent trip to the city.
Our experiences are not unusual. Delhi – officially the National Capital Territory of Delhi – is the world’s second most populated urban area, and is among its most polluted. Air pollution recently went 26 times over the healthy limit prescribed by the World Health Organization.
The air quality index, or AQI, is a measure of how polluted the air is on a scale of 0 (clean) to 500 (maximum pollution). On November 19, Delhi’s average was 485. Many of its air pollution sensors maxed out at 500, so the true figure would be even higher.
