Dozens of protesters demonstrated in New Delhi on Sunday, while several were arrested, to demand government action on toxic air, as a thick haze containing dangerous microparticles blanketed the Indian capital.
Parents in the crowd brought their children, who wore masks and waved signs, which read: “I miss breathing.”
New Delhi, with its extensive metropolitan region of 30 million inhabitants, regularly ranks among the most polluted capitals in the world.
Pungent smog blankets the horizon each winter, when colder air traps pollutants close to the ground, creating a deadly mix of emissions from crop burning, factories and heavy traffic.
Levels of PM2.5 (cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream) sometimes rise to 60 times the UN’s daily health limits.
“Today I am here only as a mother,” said protester Namrata Yadav, who came with her son. “I’m here because I don’t want to become a climate refugee.”
On Sunday, PM2.5 levels around India Gate, the iconic war memorial where protesters had gathered, were more than 13 times higher than the daily maximum recommended by the World Health Organization.
“Year after year, it’s the same story, but there is no solution,” said Tanvi Kusum, a lawyer who said she came because she was “frustrated.”
“We have to put pressure on the government to at least take the issue seriously.”
Fragmented government initiatives have failed to have a notable impact. These included partial restrictions on transportation powered by fossil fuels and tankers that spray fog to clean particles from the air.
“Pollution is destroying our lives,” said a young woman who claimed to be “speaking for Delhi” and refused to give her name.
a study in The Lancet Planetary Health Last year it was estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were related to air pollution.
The United Nations children’s agency warns that polluted air puts children at greater risk of acute respiratory infections.
As the sun set over the smog-covered horizon, the crowd of protesters appeared to swell before police bundled several activists onto a bus, confiscating their signs and banners, arguing that they did not have permission to protest there. One of them, half torn, read: “I just want to breathe.”
“There was no permission to hold a protest at India Gate. To maintain law and order and ensure that there are no obstacles to security measures, some people were detained,” the Indian newspaper reports. The Hindu reported, citing a police officer.
