A dense blanket of haze covered the national capital on Monday, with air quality lingering in the “very poor” category. The worsening crisis mirrors the pollution struggles faced by major cities worldwide, reminiscent of China's ‘Beijing 2013 smog emergency’, which sparked public outrage and a severe health crisis.

Delhi, similarly, faces seasonal chokes from stubble burning , vehicular exhaust, and dust, contributing to 12,000 premature deaths yearly in the city alone. A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.

In the early 2010s, both Delhi and China's Beijing grappled with “airpocalypse” levels of smog, with PM2.5 concentrations routinely surpassing 500 μg/m³, more than 50

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