‘Sounds like Doomsday’: Delhi gets set for ‘worst ever’ winter smog

As the Indian leader Narendra Modi attends the Cop26 summit, an annual environmental catastrophe is unfolding back home, reports Arpan Rai

An Indian man walks up stairs as Delhi’s skyline is seen enveloped in smog and dust (AP)

A time bomb of pollution is ticking away in India’s northern belt, set to gradually explode in the next fortnight and turn the national capital New Delhi into a gas chamber, filling millions of lungs with hazardous air.

Satellite images show farm fires in two northern Indian states burning away, turning the air poisonous. Fields spread out hundreds of miles, running from Delhi to Haryana and then Punjab – the country’s rice bowls – will keep burning for the next 10 days or so. Acre by acre spanning more than 300 miles will be torched, to make space for the next batch of crops.

The fire and the smoke emanating from these farm fields, carried by winds, will travel to Delhi and mix with the city-state’s own ever-rising pollution.