Delhi/Shimla, November 7:
North India is breathing ' toxic air, and the toll is now unmistakable inside hospitals.
From the gas chamber of Delhi to the once-clean hills of Himachal. Doctors are reporting a frightening spike in respiratory, eye and skin diseases
Yet pollution regulators remain mute spectators while industries, traffic and stubble fires turn the region into a slow-burning health disaster.
PGIMER Professor of Medicine Dr Pulin Gupta sounds the alarm:
“Because of the pollution, the OPD is flooded with patients with respiratory diseases like bronchitis and acute asthma attacks.
ENT OPDs are packed with sinusitis, runny nose and even bleeding nose. Dermatitis cases are up. Patients have dryness, watery eyes, redness and even reduced vision.”
The respiratory clinic, he says, is seeing 22–25% more pollution-related cases. People with asthma, chronic bronchitis, elderly smokers and those with past tuberculosis are at high risk of severe flare-ups.
Dr Gupta draws a stark contrast:
“Delhi’s OPDs used to overflow with respiratory patients during this season. Here, where the air is cleaner, cases are far fewer. Pollution is a real threat. The government must act instead of making empty promises.”
But Delhi is not alone. The hill state that once sold itself as “clean and green” is now coughing.
In Shimla and towns across Himachal, dust clouds rising from broken, unrepaired, potholed roads along with pollens from pine forests have become a permanent part of the atmosphere, triggering allergies and breathing problems—especially among children, tourists and the elderly.
And what the government refuses to even acknowledge is this:
Pollution from Darlaghat and Baramana cement factories, and emissions from industries in the Baddi–Barotiwala–Nalagarh (BBN) belt, and the mixing plants are steadily poisoning the air.
Locals complain of burning eyes, choking throats and persistent cough, yet no regulator is willing to step in. Complaints gather dust. Industries run unchecked.
Visitors return with allergies and respiratory irritation—and authorities look the other way.
Meanwhile, smog from stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and parts of north India drifts across the region, thickening the toxic blanket.
Yet, pollution-control boards remain invisible.No emission checks. No road-dust mitigation. No accountability. No urgency.
The result? A silent public-health emergency.
#CleanAirNow #PollutionCrisis #HealthEmergency #StopIndustrialPollution
