Satellite images show smog over north India and Pakistan after Diwali

Satellite images taken on 10 November show a thick layer of smog over northern India and Pakistan, two days after Diwali, NDTV and India Today reported. India Today said the images came from a NASA satellite.

The images show the haze spread across the plains of the north, where pollution peaks every year in the days after the festival. Smoke from firecrackers adds to the dust, vehicle fumes and farm fires that already fill the air in early winter, and cold, still air traps it close to the ground.

On the ground, Delhi’s air stayed close to “severe” on 9 November, with a city average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 370. On Diwali night, 20 of the city’s 59 monitoring stations were in the “severe” band. Hyderabad’s average AQI reached 509 on the night of the festival, and Mumbai and Chennai also woke to smog on 9 November.

An AQI above 400 is “severe”, the worst band, which the Central Pollution Control Board says can harm healthy people and seriously affect those with lung or heart disease.

What’s next

Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan, which bars some construction and older vehicles, has been in force across Delhi-NCR since 6 November. The Supreme Court is due to hear the case on vehicle pollution in Delhi and three neighbouring States on 23 November.