Hundreds of people held a protest in New Delhi on Sunday, demanding authorities take urgent action against the worsening air quality in India's capital.

The city, one of the most polluted in the world, has been choking under a blanket of smog with very poor air quality.

The protesters, including parents and environmental activists, said the government must come out with a time-bound plan to address the pollution crisis.

Smog-choked New Delhi and its surrounding region, home to more than 30 million people, routinely rank among the world’s most polluted.

India has six of the 10 most polluted cities globally, and New Delhi is the most polluted capital, according to a report from Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database IQAir earlier this year.

Air quality worsens in New Delhi every winter as farmers burn crop residue in nearby states and cooler temperatures trap the smoke, which mixes with vehicle and industrial emissions.

Pollution levels often reach 20 times higher than the World Health Organization’s safe limit.

Authorities have imposed construction bans, restricted diesel generators and deployed water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control the haze.

However, critics say there needs to be a long-term solution that drastically reduces pollution itself, instead of actions that aim to mitigate the effects after it has already plagued the region.

Last month, Indian authorities carried out a cloud-seeding experiment over smog-choked New Delhi in an attempt to induce rainfall and clear the city's toxic air.

Cloud seeding - a weather modification method that releases chemicals into clouds to trigger rain - has been used in drought-prone regions, such as the western United States and the United Arab Emirates, though experts say its effectiveness remains uncertain.

AP video by Rishi Lekhi