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The enemy is nearly invisible and there are no soldiers, but the Indian capital’s new “Green War Room” is battling air pollution that is cutting lives of residents by over a decade.
“It’s a pollution emergency”, said Gopal Rai, environment minister for the rapidly expanding megacity of over 20 million people, consistently ranked the world’s worst capital for air quality.
Rai dubs the problem an “air-pocalypse”.
New Delhi’s latest effort to combat a decades-old problem is a high-tech coordination centre, where 17 experts monitor giant screens livestreaming pollution hotspots, beaming in NASA satellite imagery and updating air quality index (AQI) sensors.
In Delhi, levels of PM2.5 pollutants – cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs – often hit more than 30 times World Health Organization danger limits.
On Friday, schools were shut across the city as a noxious grey smog engulfed it, making life a misery for its 30 million inhabitants.
The average city resident could die nearly 12 years earlier due to air pollution, according to an August report by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.
Eye-stinging and lung-burning smog worsens during winter from October to February – when colder air traps pollution – and residents are advised to wear face masks outside at all times.
Political roadblocks
Last month, Delhi opened the pollution coordination hub connecting 28 government departments – complete with “Green War Room” sign – to zoom in on exact emission sites.
“As soon as the AQI worsens, we alert our teams on the ground and they take…
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