Residents of Delhi woke up to another day of toxic smog blanketing the city skyline as the air quality level paradoxically improved to the ‘very poor’ category with an AQI of 380 on Tuesday.
A marginal improvement in Delhi’s AQI was reported today, days after the implementation of GRAP 4 restrictions, as the city breathed air in the dangerous ‘severe’ zone.
According to Central Pollution Control Board data as of 8:00 am on Tuesday, Delhi’s AQI was recorded at 378 in the “very poor” category.
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According to CPCB data, official index readings at several monitoring stations crossed 450 on Sunday, up from 430 on Saturday and the highest so far this winter season. It was 449 on Monday.
An AQI between 301 and 400 is considered “very poor” and 401 to 500 is “severe”. CPCB does not register an AQI value of more than 500.
The Delhi government has acknowledged that AQI levels in the city have remained at “severe” levels for at least the past three days, saying the polluted air can cause respiratory effects in healthy people and seriously affect the health of people with heart or lung conditions.
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How many people die each year from air pollution?
According to a 2024 study in the medical journal The Lancet, long-term exposure to air pollution in India was linked to 1.5 million additional deaths each year.
According to the University of Chicago’s 2025 Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) report, air pollution, India’s most serious health threat, has reduced life expectancy in the country by 3.5 years.
The report states that 46 percent of Indians live in areas that even exceed national PM2.5 standards of 40 µg/m³. Delhi-NCR was reportedly among the worst affected areas in the country, with its residents facing a loss of 4.74 years of life expectancy.
Meeting the stricter World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of 5 µg/m³ could add up to 9.4 months even in cleaner regions. Based on the WHO standard, residents of Delhi-NCR can expect an 8.2-year reduction in life expectancy.
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But Shweta Narayan, head of campaigns at the Global Alliance for Climate and Health, said of air pollution deaths in India: “Air pollution-related deaths are not being counted. And the reason they’re not being counted is because there are no systematic mechanisms to do that.”
According to the State of the Global Air (SoGA) 2025 report, air pollution is the second leading risk factor for premature death worldwide, second only to high blood pressure.
The report said up to 7.9 million deaths were attributed to air pollution in 2023 – about 1 in 8 deaths worldwide.
The SoGA report said that of this total, 4.9 million deaths were caused by exposure to ambient PM2.5, 2.8 million were caused by indoor air pollution and 470,000 were caused by ozone.
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Avoid all outdoor activities
Health experts warned residents to avoid all outdoor activities as hospitals reported an influx of patients with respiratory problems and eye irritation.
“New Delhi is a gas chamber right now. Air purifiers can only help a little, so it’s high time the government comes up with some permanent solution,” Naresh Dang, a doctor at Max Healthcare, told AP.
Dr. Saurabh Mittal, assistant professor in the pulmonology department at AIIMS, told PTI that the primary precaution is to stay indoors.
“Children should play indoors and people should wear N95 masks if unavoidable. People with health problems should take medication regularly and the elderly should take vaccines recommended by their doctors to reduce the risk of lung infections,” he said.
