NASA's Worldview satellite has captured how the toxic smog extends from Pakistan to the Bay of Bengal.
New Delhi's pollution levels continue to be in the severe category forcing authorities to impose emergency measures, including traffic curbs and shutting schools. The drastic air quality is a result of a cocktail of factors, the chief contributors being vehicular emissions and smoke from crop burning in neighbouring states.
NASA's Worldview satellite has captured how the toxic smog extends from Pakistan to the Bay of Bengal. The smog is coupled with a sharp rise in farm fires in North India, shows the satellite data.
NASA data shows that the number of farm fires has seen a sharp rise since October 29. The state saw a 740 per cent increase on October 29 with 1,068 farm fire incidents - the highest in a single day in the current harvesting season.
With the air quality index as high as 500 in some areas on Wednesday morning, New Delhi has topped the chart of the world's most polluted cities for the last six days. Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), a set of anti-pollution guidelines, has been invoked and diesel trucks and construction activities have been banned in the national capital.
The Supreme Court has asked the governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to urgently discuss with the Centre how to stop the farm fires. The court has said it cannot allow this to become a political battle, stressing that the choking air quality is responsible for the "murder of people's health".