The Stream

Why is Delhi’s air so toxic?

The Stream asks why in 2018 India’s capital had zero “good” air quality days.

More than 100,000 children under the age of five die every year in India because of air pollution, according to a report released this month by Down to Earth Magazine and the Centre for Science and Environment. Remarkably, India’s noxious air is now responsible for 12.5 percent of all deaths in the country.

One of the worst affected cities is New Delhi, where somedays breathing the air is equivalent to smoking 44 cigarettes a day. In 2018, the capital city had an astonishing zero good air quality days.  “Delhi’s deadly air” is the subject of a new People and Power documentary out this month.

So why is Delhi’s air so polluted? And what’s being done to change that? We’ll ask the filmmaker and a panel of experts those questions on this episode of The Stream. 

On this episode of The Stream, we speak with:
Neha Tara Mehta @NehaTaraMehta
Investigative Producer, Al Jazeera English
aljazeera.com

Pallavi Pant @pallavipnt
Scientist, Health Effects Institute
indiaaq.blog

Sunil Dahiya @Sunil_S_Dahiya
Clean air campaigner, Greenpeace
greenpeace.org

Read more: 
Indian capital chokes as pollution level hit the worst this year – Al Jazeera 
Air pollution kills 100,000 Indian children every year, study says – CBS News 

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