The Supreme Court has ordered a complete halt to stubble burning around Delhi, a major contributor to lethal smog that yesterday kept the metropolis of 20mn people choking in air rated “very poor”.
The court said the capital’s residents were “losing precious years” of their lives, adding “people are dying, this just cannot happen in a civilised country”.
In a ruling following petitions filed by activists, the court’s judges ordered an immediate halt to the practice of farmers burning crop stubble in the states surrounding the capital.
They warned that the entire administrative and police hierarchy - all the way down to local officers - would be held responsible if the practice continued.
Burning stubble is already illegal, but many hard-up farmers say they have no choice.
Satnam Singh, a poor farmer in Punjab, says that he has to clear his field ready for the next crop.
“Without burning the stubble, we just cannot sow the wheat in the field,” Singh told AFP as clouds of acrid smoke rose up from fields all around.
And even though burning stubble is illegal, enforcement is lax.
Government schemes - such as improving access to machinery that removes the need to burn crop residue - have had little impact.
“All these machinery that people talk about, a regular farmer cannot get these machines. They are very expensive. Which farmer can afford that?” said Singh.
Each winter, smog hits northern India as cooler air traps the stubble smoke, car fumes, factory emissions and construction dust close to the ground, creating a noxious cocktail that burns eyes and makes breathing difficult.
On Sunday pollution shot up, with levels of particulates measuring less than 2.5 microns - so tiny they can enter the bloodstream - approaching 1,000 micrograms per cubic metre of air, the worst in three years.
The World Health Organisation’s recommended safe daily maximum is just 25.
Flights were diverted and hospitals reported a surge in patients with respiratory complaints.
Concentrations of the tiny particles - which can be lethal with long-term exposure - fell yesterday, with the government monitoring agency SAFAR rating the air “very poor”, down from “severe” a day earlier.
According to the AirVisual website, Delhi remained the most polluted city in the world yesterday ahead of Kolkata and Lahore.
Beijing was in sixth place.
Construction was banned temporarily in Delhi late last week, while schools have been closed until today - with city authorities handing out free anti-pollution masks to children.
Authorities also parked a van with an air purifier near the Taj Mahal in a bid to clean the atmosphere that in recent years has damaged the iconic marble mausoleum, some 250km south of Delhi.
“We read in newspapers about pollution in India and bought masks once we landed in Delhi. The air is really bad here and we are worried about our children,” Neelofar, a tourist from Iran at the Taj Mahal, told AFP.
On Monday Delhi authorities moved to reduce traffic by rolling out a scheme allowing cars with odd and even registration numbers on the roads on alternate days.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has called the city a “gas chamber”, hailed the first day of the scheme as a success, with 1.5mn cars off the roads and traffic reduced.
Two thousand volunteers and more than 465 police and transport officials were deployed at intersections, handing out fines of Rs4,000 to 259 transgressors.
They included Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Goel, who flouted the law in his saffron sports utility vehicle to protest what called a “stunt” ahead of upcoming city elections.
Exempt from the restrictions were Delhi’s 7mn motorbikes and scooters, public transport vehicles, and cars carrying only women, stoking criticism that the measures were token.
Siddharth Singh, a climate policy expert, called the traffic restrictions “ineffective”.
“If air pollution was solely due to the vehicular traffic, then this would be a solution. Right now it cannot be a solution because motorised private transport has a very small share in the whole pie,” Singh told AFP.
Stubble burning is believed to account for nearly half the pollution.
Fourteen Indian cities including the capital are among the world’s top 15 most polluted cities, according to the WHO.
One study last year said that a million Indians died prematurely every year as a result.