For today’s episode of Aaj Ka AQI, we stood outside Hauz Khas metro station, one of the city’s busiest commuter points with heavy passenger footfall.

The nearest official DPCC monitoring station at Aurobindo Marg recorded an AQI of 190, placing it in the ‘moderate’ category. Our independent air quality monitor, however, recorded an AQI of 376, placing it in the ‘very poor’ category.

This discrepancy is a stark reminder of the health crisis at hand: According to a Washington Post analysis of 2.5 months of government data, residents of Delhi are “breathing in polluted air that is equivalent to smoking roughly nine cigarettes a day”.  

Watch.

This show is part of a collaborative campaign to tackle air pollution. Here’s how you can join the Fight To Breathe. Click here to power this campaign.