New Delhi joined two Indian cities in being among the world’s 10 worst cities in terms of pollution on Monday morning, as smoke hung heavy in the air a day after people set off firecrackers for the annual Hindu festival of lights, Diwali.
The capital New Delhi, as it often does, took the top spot. According to Swiss group IQAir, its air quality index (AQI) figure was 420, putting it in the ‘hazardous’ category.
But Kolkata in India’s east also made the top 10, coming in fourth with an AQI of 196, while financial capital Mumbai was eighth with an AQI of 163.