<figure id="attachment_3204952" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3204952" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3204952" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/07505f1e-afp__20251109__83hy8je__v1__highres__indiaenvironmentpollutionprotest.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3204952" class="wp-caption-text">Demonstrators wearing masks hold posters during a protest demanding the government take action to reduce air pollution in New Delhi. (AFP pic)</figcaption></figure>
NEW DELHI: Dozens of protesters rallied in New Delhi on Sunday to demand government action on toxic air, as a thick haze containing dangerous microparticles shrouded the Indian capital.
Parents in the crowd brought their children, who wore masks and waved placards, with one reading: &#8220;I miss breathing&#8221;.
New Delhi with its sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million residents is regularly ranked among the world&#8217;s most polluted capitals.
Acrid smog blankets the skyline each winter, when cooler air traps pollutants close to the ground, creating a deadly mix of emissions from crop burning, factories and heavy traffic.
Levels of PM2.5 &#8212; cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream &#8212; sometimes rise to as much as 60 times the UN&#8217;s daily health limits.
&#8220;Today I am here just as a mother,&#8221; said protester Namrata Yadav, who came with her son.
&#8220;I am here because I don&#8217;t want to become a climate refugee.&#8221;
On Sunday, PM2.5 levels around India Gate, the iconic war memorial where protesters had assembled, were more than 13 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.
&#8220;Year after year, it is the same story but there is no solution,&#8221; said Tanvi Kusum, a lawyer who said she had come because she was &#8220;frustrated&#8221;.
&#8220;We have to build pressure so that the government at least takes up the issue seriously.&#8221;
Piecemeal government initiatives have failed to make a noticeable impact.
These included partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear particulate matter from the air.
&#8220;Pollution is cutting our lives,&#8221; said a young woman who claimed to be &#8220;speaking for Delhi&#8221; and refused to share her name.
A study in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.
The UN children&#8217;s agency warns that polluted air puts children at heightened risk of acute respiratory infections.
As the sun set into the smog-covered skyline, the crowd of protesters appeared to swell before police bundled several activists into a bus, seizing their placards and banners, arguing they did not have a permission to protest there.
One of them, half-torn, read: &#8220;I just want to breathe&#8221;.

MatchPoint Times

‘I miss breathing’: Delhi protesters demand action on pollution

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