India’s “severe plus” air pollution forces more dramatic safety measures

New Delhi — Authorities in India’s sprawling capital city imposed even stricter emergency measures Monday in a bid to prevent illness as thick smog blanketed New Delhi. The air pollution was even worse, and considerably so, than last week, when the annual smog first descended. 
Delhi’s air quality Index (AQI) — a measure of the severity of air pollution based on the levels of five toxins — shot up to 499 in some places Monday morning. That meant a categorization of “severe plus” on India’s System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) scale, and “hazardous” under the U.S. AQI measurement system.
The thick smog never lifted Monday, even as night descended. It disrupted dozens of flights and trains as visibility remained low all around the capital.
India’s Commission for Air Quality Management announced on Monday it had implemented stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) — bringing the strictest emergency measures offered to mitigate the impacts and try to reduce pollution.
The stage 4 measures, which are likely to remain in place until conditions improve, include:
India’s Supreme Court on Monday chastized the Delhi government over the worsening air quality in the capital and asked why it had waited for the AQI to cross the 300 mark before imposing the strictest emergency measures. Any AQI reading over 300 falls within the worst, hazardous level on the U.S. scale. 
“How could the government take such a risk?” the Supreme Court asked.
The court has also asked the federal government to share real-time satellite data to show the impact of farm waste burning with state governments, in the hope of encouraging action at the state level to tackle the polluting, highly common practice in Delhi’s neighboring states.
Delhi sees a major spike in air pollution every very winter due to several factors, including the burning of farm waste or “stubble” in the adjoining states of Haryana and Punjab. Fireworks and climatological factors also contribute to the smog.