MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A blanket of smog has settled over swaths of South Asia. It's so thick it can be seen from space. One of the hardest-hit areas is home to an estimated 34 million people, the Indian capital Delhi and the areas nearby. NPR's Diaa Hadid reports.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: In New Delhi, smog is news.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This entire city has been blanketed by dense fog conditions.
HADID: And that's because it impacts every part of life here.
BHARGAV KRISHNA: You feel like everything around you is burning in some way, and that smoke is palpable at all times.
HADID: Bhargav Krishna studies air pollution impacts at a Delhi think tank called the Sustainable Futures Collaborative. He says smog has long settled over the plains of India and Pakistan through the winter. It's an area where hundreds of millions of people live. It's made worse by farmers who burn their fields after harvesting to make way for another round of planting. But this year, the smog's rolled in early.
KRISHNA: And it's part of a series of extraordinary climate events that we're witnessing.
HADID: Just this year, heat waves baked New Delhi for months. Then unusually heavy rains lashed the city. And now the smog. This week, Krishna says pollution levels have soared far beyond what's considered hazardous. On Friday, Delhi's chief minister announced all primary schools would shift to online classes. Authorities urged folks to work from home if they could. But that's a luxury, Krishna says, that only Delhi's elites can afford.
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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