As north India goes through another day of 'severe' air pollution, we take a step back and look at this environmental disaster not just from the prism of the political slanging match but also from a saner perspective. What can we do to deal with this apocalyptic situation now beyond knee-jerk solutions like a half-hearted odd-even scheme?

Delhi is gasping for breath! The smog attack is getting worse by the day in the National Capital Region with medical experts and environmentalists raising the red flag over the health hazards. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal brought back the odd-even in the capital & he puts the blame on farmers in Haryana and Punjab for stubble burning. National Green Tribunal has asked civic bodies to stop burning of waste in the NCR region. How to save Delhi which is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis is the topic of discussion on this edition of India Development Debate.

Public Forum : Smog Chokes Delhi

Insight : Toxic Smog

Delhi turns into a gas chamber, the capital becomes a death trap. But this is not Delhi's problem alone. Delhi is simply sounding a red hot alert for all cities of India - where air quality is staedily dipping. Cities like Mumbai and Chennai where air can escape with sea breeze have already plunged to average air quality, and others are slowly heading that way. What will happen when in a few year.

चर्चा में: प्रदूषण से जंग

With the pollution crisis in Delhi becoming an annual feature, the government has now announced a drastic plan to help clean up the air in the National Capital Region. Bharat Stage-VI fuel, equivalent to Euro-6 standards, will now be introduced in Delhi by 2018 and NCR by 2019. Will this really help in the clean up of the national capital? Are our oil companies ready to spend tens of thousands of crores to upgrade their fuel facilities? We debate on The Buck Stops Here.

A new report from the Centre for Science and Environment shows that lifestyle diseases or non-communicable diseases are responsible for more than 61 per cent of all deaths in India. Whether it is heart diseases, respiratory illnesses, cancer, obesity or food allergies, new research reveals that the rise in their incidences is due to factors such as rapid urbanisation, air pollution and changes in diet rather than in our genes. The new report called Body Burden: Lifestyle Diseases is essentially a report card on the state of health in India.

Delhi may be the worst polluted city in the world but not all is Delhi's fault. The neighbouring areas of Delhi, that is, Haryana, Punjab, Ghaziabad and Noida holds many industrial areas that emit poisonous gases every single which then accumulates in Delhi's atmosphere. So, Delhi will never be rid of its pollution crisis unless the governing bodies of these so-called neighbours regulate the industries emitting poisonous gases.

Delhi and the National Capital Region is in a state of emergency. With the Air Quality Index at the `Severe’ level people are confronting that hard truth about toxic air - it’s hazardous to health and life.