00:00Breaking news coming in from the National Capital Region.
00:02It's the season again when dense fog engulfs Delhi NCR.
00:07Air quality plummets to seasons low.
00:10Delhi's AQI enters the severe category.
00:12Gravco has been invoked in Delhi NCR.
00:15And a thick layer of smog could be seen shrouding the National Capital Region,
00:21making visibility extremely low.
00:23To bring you a clearer picture of what exactly has been seen,
00:28and seen this morning itself, we have Ashutosh Mishra bringing us a ground report.
00:32Let's quickly take a look at that first.
00:36So Delhi is waking up this morning with a dense fog all around.
00:39I'm here at Akshar Dham Temple.
00:41The road right behind me heading to the National Capital.
00:44And there you see all the cars, all the vehicles that are moving on the National Highway
00:47is literally going invisible right after 100 meters.
00:51Visibility here at Akshar Dham stretch is less than 100 meters.
00:54And in fact, just across the lane, across the driving lane, there's Akshar Dham Temple,
01:00which is literally disappeared, has gone invisible.
01:02And the fog is literally falling like a raindrop.
01:05And that's the prediction was by the MED department,
01:08that another three to four days, it will be the Gangetic Plain.
01:11And across northern plains will witness a dense fog.
01:14In fact, the road that I traveled through from Ghaziabad to Noidaabad,
01:17the visibility is slightly better.
01:19But as you see on the rest parts, the highway patrolling vehicles are also being alerted
01:24because of the fog situation.
01:25All the vehicles are moving with the fog lamps on.
01:28And that explains why it is so furious.
01:30In fact, the GRAPH 4 provisions have been invoked by the Commission for Equality Management
01:35in the National Capital and NCR region because of looking at the extreme e-pollution
01:39because the fog-like situation and the low surface wind speed will add further to the
01:44detonating air quality.
01:46And unless and until the wind speed picks up, this will not be clear.
01:49Look at this.
01:50The distance between camera and me is hardly a couple of feet.
01:54And the fog is so dense that even literally a hazy images that will appear on your screen.
02:02This is 7.30 a.m.
02:04I'm at Akshar Dham Temple.
02:05And look at the fog-like condition.
02:07This is not even the month of January when we witness this extreme fog, dense fog situation.
02:12At Akshar Dham Temple in National Capital, this is Ashutosh Mishra for India Today.
02:17So viewers, well, this is the situation currently in the National Capital.
02:21Let's take you through some more developments that we are in fact understanding.
02:26As air quality levels in the capital have slipped into the severe category once again,
02:30its stricter anti-pollution curbs have been imposed across Delhi NCR that we are now seeing.
02:36Authorities have invoked Stage 4 of the Graded Action Response Plan.
02:39One of the most significant steps under the GRAPH 4 is a complete ban on all construction and demolition
02:45activities across Delhi.
02:47Schools in the capital shall now also be operating in hybrid mode.
02:50The measures also include the closure of stone crushers, mining operations and associated
02:54activities across the NCR.
02:57And as these are considered to be major contributors to the dust and particulate pollution that
03:03the NCR is grappling with.
03:05Further, transport restrictions have also been tightened.
03:08The decision was taken by the Commission for Air Quality Management after Delhi's Air Quality
03:12Index showed a sharp worsening trend.
03:14The AQI dipped to 4.41 on Saturday, prompting concerns that pollution levels could soon breach
03:20the severe plus threshold as well.
03:23So, this is currently the situation that we see.
03:26There seems to be no end to the apocalypse that we are witnessing in the National Capital
03:32region.
03:32And let us tell you, as the temperatures will only go lower from henceforth, given that
03:37the winter has set in and it will be approaching peak season at the later days of December and
03:44the early days of January, this situation might even get worse.
03:48And that is what experts are looking at in terms of the air pollution mess, the crisis that
03:54Delhi has been grappling with over years now.
03:57And with the Grab Corps having been imposed, yes, there are measures in place that have
04:02in fact restricted certain activities that contribute to the pollution levels in the national capital.
04:08But the question still remains, why is there no permanent solution to this very problem which
04:15we see year after year, in fact, shrouding the capital city of the country?
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