Thick smog shrouds Delhi after Diwali celebrations

As daylight broke over New Delhi on Monday, the city remained shrouded in a thick blanket of smog. I'm starting to feel like I'm in Bhutan. I feel suffocated. It wasn't this bad on my previous visit. Today it's particularly difficult to breathe. I don't know what has happened. Firecrackers set off during Diwali weekend celebrations, are worsening already dangerously high pollution levels linked to vehicle emissions, industries and farm fires in one of the world's most polluted areas. Here in Loni, around 30 kilometres from New Delhi, the concentration of cancer-causing fine particles reached 879 micrograms per cubic metre on Monday, nearly 60 times the World Health Organisation's recommended daily limit. My eyes are always burning here and I have problems with my throat. People here fall sick very often and very quickly. In an attempt to curb the spike in pollution levels linked to Diwali, authorities imposed some restrictions over the use of firecrackers. And water sprinkler trucks were deployed to reduce road dust. But these do little to suppress the dangerous particles in the air. The pollutants continue to stay and that's what becomes quite a challenge for people who are actually having problems with breathing and various disorders. Thank you. Environmentalists say long-term solutions, from cleaner energy to tighter controls on vehicle emissions, are needed to tackle the country's recurring pollution crisis. Between 2009 and 2019, an estimated 3.8 million people died from air pollution in India.