Delhi 'tops' list of world’s most polluted cities
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A noted figure has raised concerns over pollution hazards, 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Sunday
“Every year 6.5 million people die worldwide due to air pollution, out of which in India, 1.6 million,” tweeted Ashok Swain, professor of peace and conflict research at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden.
In India's capital Delhi, the number of death due to air pollution is 54,000. Delhi is the most polluted city in the world. Neither people nor leaders do care,” he adds.
Every year 6.5 million people die worldwide due to air pollution, out of which in India, 1.6 million. In India's capital Delhi, the number of death due to air pollution is 54,000. Delhi is the most polluted city in the world. Neither people nor leaders do care.
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) November 5, 2022
A BBC report earlier in the ongoing year too set alarm bells ringing. For the last 10 years, Shaheen Khokhar has witnessed this annual cycle as a resident of Gurugram, southwest of Delhi in the Northern Indian state of Haryana.
Around October, when she drives into the city, the unnaturally grey, seemingly overcast skies creep up without warning. "One minute, there's sunshine, and the next, you're engulfed in this dark, smoky haze," she says. "Every day, we see a deeply distressing, visual reminder of the pollution that we're forced to live with."
The effects of that pollution range from skin and eye irritation to severe neurological, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis, lung capacity loss, emphysema, cancer, and increased mortality rates. Globally, outdoor air pollution kills around 4.2 million people each year.
Twenty-one of the world's 30 cities with the worst levels of air pollution are in India, according to data compiled in the 2021 World Air Quality Report. Six Indian cities are in the top 10. New Delhi has the highest exposure to toxic air in the country. People in India had the fifth-highest annual recordings of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a particularly harmful form of air pollution. The year-round average for PM2.5 pollution in New Delhi was the worst of any capital city in the world by a large margin.