Thick smog chokes northern India and eastern Pakistan ahead of Diwali

CNN —

Thick, toxic smog has once again enveloped northern India and eastern Pakistan just days before the start of Diwali, a Hindu festival typically celebrated with fireworks that each year sends air quality plummeting.

The air quality index in the Indian capital of Delhi was roughly 250 on Monday morning, after days in the “very unhealthy” zone above 200, according to IQAir, which tracks global air quality.

In the Pakistani city of Lahore, roughly 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Indian border, air quality surpassed a “hazardous” 500 on Monday – almost 65 times the World Health Organization’s guidelines for healthy air – making it the most polluted city in the world at the time of the ranking, according to IQAir.

Schoolgirls wearing masks ride a motorcycle as they leave school amid a rise in smog levels in Lahore, Pakistan on October 25, 2024.

Air quality across the region is set to worsen as winter smog season approaches, when an ominous yellow haze blankets the skies due to farmers burning agricultural waste, coal-fired power plants, traffic and windless winter days.

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is set to begin Thursday – a five day celebration during which people gather with their families, feast and set off firecrackers, in some cases in defiance of local bans, further exacerbating air pollution.

Dystopian scenes of orange haze and buildings enveloped by fog emerge each year as smog season dominates the news, raising alarm as doctors warn of the risk of respiratory diseases and impacts on life expectancy. India’s air pollution has been found to be so bad, that experts have warned smog could take years off the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

A man rides a motorbike along a street engulfed in