Photos: The toxic haze – Delhi's struggle with severe air pollution

India's capital, New Delhi, switched schools to online classes Monday until further notice as worsening toxic smog surged past 60 times the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum. Above, pedestrians walk along the Kartavya Path engulfed in thick smog near India Gate in New Delhi on November 18, 2024.

People exercise at Lodhi Gardens on a cold, smoggy morning in New Delhi. Various piecemeal government initiatives have failed to measurably address the problem, with the smog blamed for thousands of premature deaths each year and particularly impacting the health of children and the elderly.

Levels of PM2.5 pollutants - dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs - peaked at 907 micrograms per cubic metre on Monday morning, according to IQAir pollution monitors, with a reading above 15 in a 24-hour period considered unhealthy by the WHO. Above, tourists visit the Taj Mahal on a cold smoggy morning in Agra on November 18, 2024.

Levels of PM2.5 pollutants - dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs - peaked at 907 micrograms per cubic metre on Monday morning, according to IQAir pollution monitors, with a reading above 15 in a 24-hour period considered unhealthy by the WHO. Above, tourists visit the Taj Mahal on a cold smoggy morning in Agra on November 18, 2024.

Individual monitoring stations noted even higher levels - one recorded PM2.5 pollutants at 980, 65 times the WHO maximum. Above, tourists visit Jama Masjid amid thick smog in the old quarters of Delhi.

"My eyes have been burning for the last few days", said rickshaw puller Subodh Kumar, 30. "Pollution or no pollution, I have to be on the road, where else will I go?" he said, pausing from eating breakfast at a roadside stall.

An anti-smog gun on a multi-purpose vehicle sprays water droplets to curb air pollution at Raisina Hills in New Delhi on Monday, as Delhi's air quality remains in the 'severe' category.

The city is blanketed in poisonous smog each year, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in neighbouring regions to clear their fields for ploughing, as well as factories and traffic fumes.

A report by The New York Times this month, based on samples collected over five years, revealed dangerous fumes also spewing from a power plant incinerating the city's landfill garbage mountains.

This combination of pictures created on November 18, 2024, shows (above) pedestrians walking along the Kartavya Path engulfed in thick smog near India Gate in New Delhi on November 18, 2024, and pedestrians walking under a clear blue sky at the Kartavya Path near India Gate in New Delhi on September 26, 2024.

Primary schools were ordered to cease in-person classes on Thursday, with a raft of further restrictions imposed on Monday, including limiting diesel-powered trucks and construction.

The curbs were put in place by city authorities "in an effort to prevent further deterioration" of the air quality.

New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter. Above, birds perch over a tree on a cold smoggy morning in New Delhi.

Commuters wearing masks stand at a bus stop in New Delhi on Monday as the city's air quality remains in the 'severe' category. 

A bus driver and conductor wear masks amid smog, at a bus stop in New Delhi.