India’s worsening, “severe plus” air pollution forces even more dramatic safety measures

New Delhi — Authorities in India’s sprawling capital city imposed even stricter emergency measures Monday in a bid to prevent illness as thick smog blanketed New Delhi. The air pollution was even worse, and considerably so, than last week, when the annual smog first descended. 

Delhi’s air quality Index (AQI) — a measure of the severity of air pollution based on the levels of five toxins — shot up to 499 in some places Monday morning. That meant a categorization of “severe plus” on India’s System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) scale, and “hazardous” under the U.S. AQI measurement system.

The thick smog never lifted Monday, even as night descended. It disrupted dozens of flights and trains as visibility remained low all around the capital.

India’s Commission for Air Quality Management announced on Monday it had implemented stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) — bringing the strictest emergency measures offered to mitigate the impacts and try to reduce pollution.

The stage 4 measures, which are likely to remain in place until conditions improve, include:

• All trucks except those carrying essential items are barred from entering Delhi.
• All commercial vehicles registered outside Delhi are barred from entering the city, though there is an exception for EVs and those running on cleaner fuels.
• All construction activities, including work on roads, flyovers, power lines, pipelines and other public projects, are halted.
• Schools switch to online teaching for all students, except for grades 10 and 12, with all other in-person classes being suspended.
• All employers, both state and private, in Delhi have been advised to have only 50% of their workforces come into their offices, with the rest working from home.
• Authorities may also order work federal government employees to work from home.

India’s Supreme Court steps in

India’s Supreme Court on Monday chastized the Delhi government over the worsening air quality in the capital and asked why it had waited for the AQI to cross the 300 mark before imposing the strictest emergency measures. Any AQI reading over 300 falls within the worst, hazardous level on the U.S. scale. 

“How could the government take such a risk?” the Supreme Court asked.

The court has also asked the federal government to share real-time satellite data to show the impact of farm waste burning with state governments, in the hope of encouraging action at the state level to tackle the polluting, highly common practice in Delhi’s neighboring states.

Delhi sees a major spike in air pollution every very winter due to several factors, including the burning of farm waste or “stubble” in the adjoining states of Haryana and Punjab. Fireworks and climatological factors also contribute to the smog.