Delhi india a sprawling seat of government is the deadliest day of all the worlds capitals we too meek spacing millions of its inhabitants to a shocking range of life threatening respect for 3 diseases so why is it so polluted and what if anything is being done to remedy it we are generous know how many of those born and raised in the city to fight back. Deli. A vibrant bustling metropolis with over 20000000 inhabitants the capital of a rapidly growing india expected to be the most populous city on the planet in the next decades. Its also my home i was born in delhi and ive lived most of my life but ive been away for a few years and in that time delhi has been making the headlines for an alarming reason its become the most polluted capital city in the world and its residents say theres snow leaving bison by the air they breathe air pollution is estimated to be the hard highest cause of death in india killing over a 1000000 people every year nearly 12000 people died in that lead 2017 because of the citys bad air some doctors are calling this a Public Health emergency. So ive come back to find out why like many big cities around the world this pollution from too much traffic and from industry but there are also specific local causes delis geographies one is another what im keen to know is why cant more be done to stop this i also want to hear from those worst affected the sick and dying and those on the frontline. Of pollution do i its a its a very dangerous situation dr ivan kumar has been a lung cancer surgeon in delhi for over 30 years most of his patients used to be male smokers in their fiftys and sixtys but thats all changed when we analyzed over data last year and we follow. And the price of 5050 distribution between more goods and socalled nonsmokers from hardly any lady we know 40 percent female then age group from fiftys and sixtys we were now seeing patients in thirtys and fortys and nearly 8 percent of my patients were under 40 years of age i rarely see along with just think even when im operating one teenagers we are fighting big black black deposits and much of this dr kumar believes is down to the citys dirty air in delhi the only requirement for you to be affected by the ill effects of air pollution is that you should be breathing. To get a better sense of what that means i had back out to the streets its early summer and the city is gearing up for National Elections pollution levels are generally lower at this time of the year than in the winter. But things are still pretty bad. Ive met up with Ron Aqsa Daria who has developed an equity wanted to ring network with piety khan for and Duke University to my surprise he just my attention 1st to something quite mundane the road sweeping almost like 50 micrograms off of dust which was picking up just when that activity was happening ron extra vice monitors fine particles in the air including something called pm 2. 00 which is smaller than the weight of human hair this tiny particle is a mighty killer it has been linked to nearly 3000000 deaths around the world in 2017 but more than half of them occurring in china and india. Although the Indian Government disputes mortality figures to. Linked to absolution b. M. P. Work by one of the most harmful pollutants to humans you know it goes deeper than the body it settles in the lungs and over an extended eurasian you know it definitely caused all the respiratory problems many disorders people like i was fostered but the people who are actually doing the work theyre exposed to this on an extended duration day after day. Theres more to delhis application than just a good dust bowl. And so we set off to take measurements around the 6 x. 7 right now we have quite a bit larger the field 2. 00 level here is higher than 60 in the last 24 hour standard how much of a problem is that if you know. The rate of actually called about 30 to 35 percent of families pollution going over the cost unless it is regulated to keep going. With around 10000000. 00 vehicles fighting for space in delhis crowded streets its unavoidable in sadly ironic that among those in the news them are some of the victims of the citys policing crisis. Im a 26 year old new delhi resident about 6 months ago i got diagnosed with stage 4 met a static lung cancer. Priyanka jan is a Digital Marketing consultant an only child she lives with her mother in south delhi the right lung is completely damaged the cancer has spread so much that its just not visible on the extreme its less than a year ago she used to drive for an hour and a half one way to get to her Office Nearly 25 kilometers away. Now many of her journeys to and from the hospital the citys evolution has been a significant contribution to my health issue it was very very difficult because i was you know working i was living my daily life i was happy and then all of a sudden i started experiencing these breathing issues i would go breathless and then one day i was hospitalized i still feel that. Im not sure if i would even make it for the new year and i dont know how many how many days do i have. Let me take about it is pretty evident that shes too young to have any cancer at all and then to have a longer answer which is classically related to smoking is almost impossible to put priyanka as dr new patient i think he has been on colleges in delhi for the past 7 years hes noticed a rise in the lung cancer among his patients we used to talk about smoking go back every day for 25 years causes cancer say 46 so its quite obvious that that may not be able to use their gums to Chemical Industries somebody whos exposed well shes not exposed to that i then you start thinking of Family History she doesnt have the idea that you have to stop a. Pollution actually be your reasons for a cancer somebody in dark young does enough evidence in the world that pollution can go dark and i really wonder if that was the main cord to betray facto if so then it could be in accord with the latest state of global air report on air quality and health. It states that 33 percent of lung cancer deaths in india can be attributed to appalachian. Living in a city like delhi youre directly but do you think in handing. When all look and serve warming chemicals not for one off or daughter or do you been doing this for years together i can not see or stop it so thats katie. And rhonda keeps me some more disturbing news in the past 6 months he has put monitors in the. City hes noticed high levels of pollution even your hospitals in a neighborhood where i grew up. This is bad news for patients to risk of having respiratory ailments from the air that they breathe is very high for you know places like these it is particularly more important to make sure that the air is far more cleaner. It also helps explain why we could see a lot of nebulized and mosques being sold around us people used to buy headache. Pain killers buying breathing about it is which is becoming a medical equipment you know requiring still the unfortunate reality you know what is happening to the i dont doubt. Its been shown by studies that men of lung capacity in generation born and brought up in the new cities like they really is much less than their counterparts in cities. Because some of the most exposed to the cities and pollution i mean them just a few kilometers away from where i live a Poor Community that helps clean up danny but is he clearly vulnerable to its dirty and. Covered up go of her. Name. But actually. Its a Learning Center run by an n. G. O. S children surprise me at the knowledge of how full eating their daily chores are but they see they have no other choice. But to. File must hire a leading cause of household and the Indian Government has made a commitment to replace the. With gas and windows and 80000000. 00 homes according to official figures almost 71000000. 00 have benefited from this so far but many of the poorest communities like these have yet to be reached. That. Being here has made me realize that dennys absolution comes from many sources big and small. Its all made worse by the citys unique geography and atmospheric conditions pollution from other areas gets blown here and then gets trapped. What is surprising is that the fight for clean air was 1st spotted decades ago and partially won but experts say the gains have now been lost we cleaned out the public transport sector we cleaned up the auto rickshaws the grass polluting sector but then over the top aus amend 3 period to 2013 the private freight cars warmed in our cities because we completely neglected public transport and as it is out of fear we have this explosion of vehicles so any town arayan was part of a campaign that led to public transport being switched to compressed natural gas or c n g we just got complacent. We just believe that the problem had gone away but what we forgot is that any city like delhi will continue to grow and the challenges will increase so nor city in the world the job is done and i think for a city like delhi the the the knowledge is particularly painful because it affects our health every lucian is a Public Health that would see something we need to be densely what it about. So what are the authorities doing here to tackle the most obvious causes of delhis dirty air. Transport sector is one of the biggest contributor to the cities there but usually this is made worse by the fact that there is a still real shortfall in the public transport system the Delhi Government says its taking steps to fix this problem. Last year then he made the commitment that we will bring in 1000. 00 we are looking buses this is the largest commitment by any city in india. Im. Just mention the Delhi Government has been working on an ambitious electric vehicle plan for the city if we are able to achieve the goal of ensuring that 25 percent of all new to start way goes in there are electric wiccans in 5 years from now our goal is that in 10 going to. Look at 100 percent a transition and reduce this 30 to 40 percent its contribution of transport sector for pollution 1st it despite these commitments the Delhi Government has been accused of not doing enough in the 4 years of the Delhi Government not a single bus has been added they have given a plan for a power let me buses and sort of another 2000 ordinary buses but honestly. Even that is too little why such a short fall of buses would be strange for many people around the world to know that the elected government off there lee does not have any control over the land or which it can set up public transport facilities will bust me pause and and the Central Government controls that and unfortunately the Central Government has not allowed their government any access to more land the will these kind of facilities. Even when the authorities here do take action matters elsewhere can cause problems down the stations are a case in point. The citys law school fired plant rather poor was shut down nastia. Despite that the problem hasnt gone away it is very clear that air pollution is not a local problem it is a regional problem and what one finds a little ironical is that on one hand you close down by the border because it is polluting delhi but on the other hand new power plants have been approved which i have read in 100 kilometers of been in wind mental lawyer rig that has been fighting for cleaner emissions from power plants the government of india came out with a fairly progressive emission norms for power plants the idea is that they will install new equipments as a result of which the pollution level will go down by almost 30 to 40 percent. The deadline was initially fixed for 2017 but the plants are yet to switch to clean or gnomes something which was hailed as one of the very important decisions taken by the present government to deal with the Environmental Crisis has been simply put in the back burner because there was no interest by the Power Companies and nor interest by the government to enforce these new norms. Dirty coal plants are a problem familiar to other parts of the world india has another particularly distinct. Of pollution challenge. The fumes from millions of firecrackers set off during the hindu festival of the valley. Its the single largest sore. Of delhi nearly 2. 5 percent of a mule pollution is caused by those 3 days of fireworks cobalt shank on the line and is a Senior Supreme Court advocates who joined other parents in filing a petition for clean air on behalf of their toddlers my middle child was having serious broken issues because of the amount of pollutants we had in the school to the sniffling and coughing tossing and turning at night the toddler skiis moved the Supreme Court to 1st banned the sale of firecrackers and lead to allow them with strict conditions but despite this millions of firecrackers was set off. And its this kind of ignorance that has brought children outside the Environment Ministry to ask for more Government Action on pollution will not be released completely we are not new and old. Believe me i dont believe. We are not able to believe. In the body type evolution is a lot we would expect i have to have a combat house to go its setting me up. In answer to these and other concerns authorities have introduced a slew of measures including planting trees around the City Building expressways and banning the import of dirty feel. In january 29000 delhi was among the cities listed in the countrys 1st ever National Clean air programme by the aquila he is still not good enough to go to india stop environment. Official to ask why i got figures from your office and the number of good air quality days in delhi last year was 0 which is quite alarming one of the critical factors in the quality is the mature logical factor the continuous layer of washed over daily or this does is the. They prevent the dispersal of it here because of the moisture level in the disposal is very bad and that is why you rarely get to see a good day thats said to have an absolute number of 0 good air quality days in delhi despite so much Government Intervention doesnt that surprise you know that just means that we need to do more work there is one point i would like to make it cannot and should not be the governments responsibility alone peoples participation is a huge thing unless that happens an individual start caring for the environment we will not be able to really clean up. The combative and labyrinth tiny chel of indian politics is also a barrier one of the most contentious issues has been the burning of rice stubble outside of delhi which leaves the city in i think his every winter commodity emergency. But unfortunately there were when this guy was in illinois money says saudia is Delhis Deputy chief minister he says the federal government must do more to bring down stubble fires outside the city was causeless some of the listening. Is covered in athens regional crisis monikers course and do werent going to come up with the entire solomon homes and the warnings about a bargain with. Meeting somebody out there but meeting successful isnt illegal but historically we do so long as it on the telly going to put out an anybody who planned. But i am saying to the delhi chief minister dont blame someone else i think pollution is too big a Public Health emergency for us to deteriorate into indias favorite game which is to blame another Political Party and get into screaming on television whats more says suneet on arayan the problem is not a lack of regulations its getting them in forced implementation is indias at gilleys he too because the institutions for governance for in foresman are very disabled they are poor so there are enough orders that are there but our institutions really lack teet. And according to data from the National CrimeRecords Bureau violators on to being prosecuted or sent to jail this is what the state of delhi has done it has not registered a single case and so theres no question of anybody getting convicted because theres no given his history at all so that we get this straight and in all of them we dont have a single conviction basically means all of there is complying with the law or there is a political gain and everybody complains with the law its definitely is not true either way they will not see such alarming level of pollution so it is a clear instance where the enforcement agencies have kept their eyes completely closed to every single violation that is happening in the state. As i go around the city makes shocking revelations still ring in my yes meanwhile delhi citizens continue to wrestle with Health Problems that pollution causes. But there is at least some good news for priyanka all of these blasts for us this big one is all cancelled this is 3 months ago a look at the seams got here you see this block has completely disappeared and you can see these black sports awards will be gone except the smaller doctor excellent news you got very happy with thank you david so dont you think this is like a case for life but its ok really crazy lives for the girls its what you know what we dont bowl and you being nobody can predict really about must so many heroes. Out on the streets campaigning is getting louder although after you stand has made it to Party Manifestos for the 1st time ever its still not a major election issue but for a recently bereaved family just outside delhi it became a matter of life and death. Struggle to beit means there were windows open and there were is and she was asking for and she was. Some calm are died a few weeks ago at the age of 35 she left behind her husband of a and a 10 year old son story on church who now wants to become a doctor. Because the cancer spreading in india continues still go to the streets so we have to stop disturbing. Everybody that its affecting. Some of the people. Im trying hard to become a fog. She was my best friend she was my last season my love and she well its like. Meeting some of the worst affected. And has made me realise there is little time to lose in the fight foci not. Grieving is the most important. Factor that you know that youre doing every moment and thats your source of life. The government really needs to take it up as a one of its priorities before anything else. Is. That its causing so many. As i leave. My beloved city is facing its greatest challenge from an invisible killer. And the government and citizens treat this as an emergency millions will continue to risk their lives just by creating. 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