New Delhi told schools to run some classes online amid worsening air pollution. Levels of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter that can clog the lungs — reached 438 in recent days, almost 30 times higher than the World Health Organization’s safe limit, and about eight times India’s national average.
While India’s capital has made moves to improve its air quality, including restricting non-essential construction and pausing industrial activity, crop burning and rapid population growth have driven pollution. Poor air quality has a massive human toll: In 2021, the latest year for which data is available, India accounted for more than one in four global deaths from pollution.
