Delhi Smog Crisis 2025: Why Delhi Can’t Breathe Every Winter | Stubble Burning, Vehicles & Politics

Every winter, Delhi disappears under a toxic grey shroud — the world’s most polluted capital trapped in its annual smog nightmare. In November 2025, the Air Quality Index rocketed past 600 (“severe”), over 10 times WHO’s safe limit. Breathing here feels like smoking 25–30 cigarettes a day. Vehicles (12 million strong), construction dust, and road re-suspension contribute nearly 50% of the deadly PM₂.₅. Outside city limits, Punjab and Haryana farmers torch paddy stubble — satellite images glow with thousands of fires, pushing crop-burning smoke to 30% of Delhi’s pollution on peak days. Industry adds 18%, coal plants 4–8%, diesel generators up to 15%, and open waste burning can spike over 50%. The result? 12,000–18,000 premature deaths yearly, per Lancet and IHME studies. Hospitals overflow with asthma, bronchitis, and heart attacks; kids and seniors suffer most. Emergency fixes — odd-even rules, construction bans, school closures — arrive like clockwork but vanish with the haze. Real solutions demand electric buses, strict industrial enforcement, subsidised crop-residue management, and regional cooperation. Until then, masks and purifiers remain Delhi’s winter uniform, and clean air stays a distant dream.