Charles and Camilla arrive in Delhi just in time for the worst smog in 17 years to cause a health emergency and force schools to close
The royal couple began the last leg of their tour today by flying into India, where the sun was obscured by a putrid haze.
THE Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall arrived India today and were greeted with the worst smog the country has seen in 17 years.
The royal couple began the last leg of their autumn tour by flying from Malaysia to New Dehli, where the sun was obscured by a smoky haze.
Smog descended on the city on Tuesday causing panic as locals woke up and found the capital engulfed, forcing the closure of schools and the declaration of a public health emergency.
The serious problem with the pollution comes after emissions from diesel engines and coal-fired power plants were further exacerbated by smoke from farmers burning crop stubble and from fireworks set off for last month’s Diwali celebrations.
India is the last leg of an 11-day trip, which has seen the prince and duchess tour Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.
Although the stop to India is brief, just two days, the meeting with the leader of the world’s largest democracy is an important one.
Charles has spoken of his passion for the Commonwealth during the tour, and with a major gathering of leaders from the family of nations being staged in London next April, the meeting of the prime minister and the prince will further strengthen UK-India relations ahead of the summit.
Meanwhile, Delhi authorities ordered all schools to shut today after the choking pollution registered at levels in the city 40 times the WHO’s safe limit.
Levels of PM 2.5, the microscopic particles that are the most damaging to health, reached more than 1,000 micrograms per cubic metre in the Indian capital.
Dr Arvind Kumar, chairman of the Centre for Chest Surgery at the Sri Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, said the smog had made the city “unfit for human habitation”.
He added: “The kind of toxin levels out there, you are affecting your brain, your heart, your lungs, every part of your body and it is causing irreparable damage.”
Pollution regularly spikes in the region before the onset of winter as farmers set light to their fields to burn the post-harvest crop stubble – a practice that remains widespread despite an official ban.
Cooler air also traps pollutants from local industry, coal-fired power plants and vehicles near the ground and prevents them dispersing into the atmosphere, a phenomenon known as inversion.
A report in the Lancet medical journal last month said pollution had claimed as many as 2.5 million lives in India in 2015, the highest in the world.
Charles and Camilla’s visit to the region comes amid revelations of Charles’ financial affairs back home.
The BBC and the Guardian report that the heir to the throne invested in an offshore carbon credit trading company, then lobbied for two climate change deals to be altered.
The leaked Paradise Papers show Charles’ private Duchy of Cornwall estate paid 113,500 dollars (£58,000) in 2007 for 50 shares in the Bermuda-registered Sustainable Forestry Management Ltd in 2007.
Following the purchase, Charles lobbied for a change to two climate change deals that would have directly benefited the business, it was reported.
A spokesman for Clarence House denied that Charles had spoken out on the two deals in order to benefit financially.
INDIA: THE WORLD'S THIRD WORST POLLUTER
INDIA has some of the worst pollution in the world and levels of the toxic gases have risen sharply in the past 10 years.
Contrary to popular belief, that China’s pollution is worse, people living in India face far greater risks of health problems due to smog.
A study released earlier this year showed the number of ozone-related deaths in India have risen by about 150 percent since 1990.
By comparison, in China and many European nations this number has remained stable.
This is believed to be due to increases in coal-fired power plants, an increase in traffic, as well as more people setting crop fires.
New Dehli, where Prince Charles and Camilla arrived today, is the 11th most polluted city in the world.
Incredibly, pollution is the fifth largest killer in India today. It causes not just causing and respiratory diseases, but also premature births and high levels of asthma.
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