Pakistan has blamed pollution drifting across the border from India for a rise in air pollution this week, after firecrackers set off during Diwali celebrations over the weekend left large parts of northern India covered in toxic smog.
Lahore, in Pakistan’s Punjab province, was ranked the world’s most polluted major city for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, according to Swiss air quality monitoring group IQAir. The city recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 263, classified as “very unhealthy”.
Levels of PM2.5, fine particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs, were 37.2 times higher than the World Health Organization’s annual guideline.
Punjab environment protection minister Marriyum Aurangzeb attributed the pollution to winds carrying contaminated air from India in the aftermath of Diwali. “However, air pollution is expected to gradually decrease from early afternoon as weather conditions improve and winds shift direction,” she said.
A thick blanket of toxic smog shrouded India’s capital early on Monday after firecrackers lit up the skies over Delhi during Diwali celebrations, compounding dangerously high pollution levels and intensifying the seasonal air pollution crisis.
Despite restrictions on fireworks, residents in Delhi celebrated the Hindu festival of lights with fireworks on Sunday evening, releasing smoke and fine particulate matter into the atmosphere.
While India’s Central Pollution Control Board showed the air quality index exceeding 400 in several parts of the city, other private monitoring sites showed pollution crossing “hazardous” levels of 2,000 in parts of Delhi on Sunday.
Monitoring stations across the city recorded similarly alarming levels, while visibility deteriorated as a grey haze blanketed streets and high-rise buildings.
Vehicle emissions, construction dust and smoke from crop-waste burning are also major contributors to winter pollution on both sides of the border.
Pakistan had similarly attributed its toxic air in 2024 to crop-waste burning in Indian Punjab, but officials from India’s weather department had said at the time that the wind direction meant the airflow was actually from Pakistan into India.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also blamed crop-waste burning in Indian Punjab governed by a regional opposition party, for Delhi’s poor air quality this month.
Local media reported a sevenfold increase in farm fires in the state on Sunday, when Diwali was celebrated.
Indian Punjab’s state government, however, says incidents of crop-waste burning have fallen compared with previous years.
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