New Delhi: It’s not an “ideal” situation, Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma said on Tuesday, November 1. Sharma wasn’t talking about losing a toss or a poor batting pitch. He was talking about the air quality in Mumbai, a day before India played Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium in the city, as part of the Cricket World Cup that India is hosting. Delhi, more than 1,400 kilometres away, is also hosting World Cup matches. On November 6, the Arun Jaitley Stadium will witness a match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. But the air quality here is far worse than Mumbai’s. This was seen from the fact that the Bangladesh cricket team on Friday cancelled its training session in the national capital ahead of their match against Sri Lanka, citing severe air pollution. Several players reportedly experienced respiratory discomfort and coughing due to the deteriorating air quality.On November 1, Delhi’s air quality was in the “very poor” category. On November 2, it made it to the higher rung: “severe”. On Friday, November 3, it’s at the upper extreme of the “severe” category. A smog hangs in the air. And predictions for the days to come are not comforting. A Union government early warning system for Delhi predicts that the air quality will remain in this category till November 6. And their outlook for the subsequent six days after that is worrying too: air quality is likely to remain in the “severe” to “very poor” category. Delhi’s winter woes have begun. ‘Very poor’ to ‘severe’ The start of every Delhi winter now marks the beginning of months of poor air quality. Several factors contribute to this, studies have shown: from farmers in Delhi NCR and the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana burning crop residue to prepare their fields faster for a new sowing season, to emissions released by the burning of fossil fuels used in industries and vehicles. The pollutants released by the latter include particulate matter (PM) which are inhalable particles of fossil fuel emissions. Particulate matter can vary in size: ranging from fine diameters of 2.5 mm (called PM2.5) to larger ones of diameters of around 10 mm (PM10). In India, the current annual average safe limits for PM2.5 and PM10 set by the CPCB are 40 micrograms/per cubic metre (ug/m3) and 60 ug/m3 respectively, far higher than the standards set by the WHO. File photo. Low visibility due to Smog at the entry of Chelmsford Road New Delhi on December 31, 2017, at 9 am. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Sumita Roy Dutta/CC BY-SA 4.0 DEEDMeteorological conditions play a role too in Delhi’s high air pollution levels: when wind speeds slow down, particulate matter stays suspended in the atmosphere, contributing to the worsening air quality. For instance, on Sunday, Punjab saw a 740% increase in farm fires, with more than a thousand recorded in a single day, reported The Guardian. As per the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) official estimate on November 3, Delhi’s Air Quality Index was 468 and the prominent pollutants were both PM2.5 and PM10. But what does this number mean? India’s Air Quality Index, or AQI, is a measure of levels of at least three pollutants, one of them being particulate matter. The Index ranges from 0 to 500. An AQI between 0 to 50 is considered ideal, healthy. If your city has an AQI between 51 and 100 (categorised as “satisfactory”), the air you breathe could cause “minor breathing discomfort to sensitive people”, per the CPCB. But the higher the AQI, the worse the category gets, as do the impacts of such air on even healthy people. Prolonged exposure to “very poor” air quality can cause respiratory illnesses, as per India’s Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). “Severe” is indicative of the highest level of air pollution – it can not only have serious impacts on people with existing diseases, but also affect healthy people. That’s where Delhi is now. At 7:48 pm on November 3, Delhi ranked second – just two points below Lahore – as the world’s most polluted city based on Swiss agency IQAIR’s live rankings. (The IQAir index is calculated differently.) Among Indian cities, Delhi topped the IQAir list. This pollution level will continue for the next two to three weeks, “aggravated by incidents of stubble burning, slow wind speed and cooling temperatures”, Reuters quoted Ashwani Kumar, chairman of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, as saying on November 3. The ministry of earth sciences’ Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi (a project under the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune) predicts that the air quality will likely be in the “upper end” of the “severe” category on November 3 – and remain in this category till November 6. Their outlook for the subsequent six days after that is worrying too, with the early warning system predicting that the air quality is likely to remain in the “Severe” to “Very Poor” category. Increasing evidence of impacts on healthIncreasing evidence suggests that poor air quality has numerous impacts on human as well as environmental health.Fine particulate matter (PM2.5), absorbed through the human respiratory system, can reach the bloodstream and cause numerous respiratory illnesses. According to a study in 2022, the latest data shows that PM2.5 is responsible for nearly 4 million deaths globally from cardiopulmonary illnesses including heart disease, chronic lung disease, cancers and preterm births. Both ambient (outdoor) and household (indoor) air pollution are responsible for about 7 million deaths globally per year, per the WHO. A study published in October this year found that inhaling air with high amounts of PM2.5 led to high blood sugar levels and increased incidences of Type II diabetes in adults.Earlier during the World Cup, Joe Root had brought up the issue of air quality after South Africa defeated England in Mumbai. ESPNCricInfo quoted him as saying that it was like “you couldn’t get your breath… It was like you were eating the air. It was unique.”Air pollution impacts children adversely too. A study in 2022 by a team including scientists from IIT Delhi found a strong relationship between ambient air pollution and infant mortality (death of children under five years of age) in India when they studied the data on particulate matter (PM2.5) from satellite imagery, and data from the Demographic and Health Survey of India of 2015-2016.Dr. Naveen Thacker, president of the International Pediatric Association, told The Wire on November 1 that it is “a well-known fact” that air pollution adversely impacts children and that “we [doctors] are seeing that in our practice now”. A political blame gameMeanwhile, political parties have taken to blaming each other for each other for failing to tackle the drastic drops in air quality levels that the national capital witnesses every year. “BJP’s politics reeks of hypocrisy,” PTI quoted AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj as saying on November 3. “What are the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana doing related to air pollution that is prevailing across north India? It is only the government of Delhi that has taken measures to control air pollution and is accountable to the people.”File photo. View of West Delhi. Photo: flickr.com/Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier/ CC BY-SA 2.0 DEEDBJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla, meanwhile, accused the Kejriwal-led AAP government in Delhi of inaction. “Questions must be asked from the Kejriwal government about what it has done in the last 7-8 years to address the issue of air pollution in Delhi,” PTI quoted him as saying.Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Arvinder Singh Lovely said that the Delhi government should have taken measures to control air pollution 15 days ago. “Infrastructure projects are delayed while the public transport system has collapsed leading to a rise in the usage of private vehicles in the city contributing to air pollution,” he told PTI.Congress leader and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh quoted studies to highlight the urgency for action in dealing with air pollution in the national capital. He quoted two studies that show that higher PM2.5 levels increase both Type II diabetes and hypertension. “The Modi govt has tried hard to discredit past studies that clearly linked increased disease burden in India to air pollution. But it cannot wish away these two studies and the air pollution crisis at large. The time to act is well past. For the sake of future generations we NEED drastic measures NOW,” he tweeted on November 2.The Indian cricket captain has very rightly raised serious concerns on the worsening air pollution situation in India, which has now extended far beyond North India.— A study by Indian scientists(not global) over a period of 7 years in Delhi and Chennai confirms increased risk…— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) November 2, 2023More of reactions, and less of action In Delhi, Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) has been implemented and this includes a complete ban on construction or demolition activities. Due to the rising pollution levels, all government and private primary schools in Delhi are to remain closed for two days, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on November 2.There will be no firecrackers for the upcoming cricket World Cup matches that will be held in Mumbai and Delhi, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on November 1. Hindustan Times reported that BCCI secretary Jay Shah said he “took up the matter” with the International Cricket Council and there will be no fireworks on display at the Arun Jaitely Stadium in Delhi and the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai as the Board was “committed to combating environmental issues and will always place the interest of our fans and stakeholders at the forefront”, in Shah’s words.Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, on November 1, said it is important that future generations be able to live without fear. “In an ideal world, you do not want a situation like this but I am pretty sure that the concerned people are taking the necessary steps to avoid this kind of situation,” ESPNCricInfo quoted Sharma as saying before India’s World Cup match against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. “It is not ideal and everyone knows that.”“Looking at our future generations, your kids, my kid,” Sharma said. “Obviously it is important that they get to live without any fear. Every time I get to speak outside of cricket, or not discussing cricket, I always talk about this. We have to look after our future generations.”