Virat Kohli urges Delhi residents to act towards curbing pollution

Virat Kohli had a special message for Delhi residents on his Twitter account. (Source: Twitter)

Delhi has been suffering from smog and then severe levels of pollution for quite a few years but the situation gets worse as the winter begins to set in. The levels of particulate matter (PM) may have reduced but the city continues to suffer respiratory concerns. Environment minister Harsh Vardhan said that the PM levels reached ‘very poor’ category with PM10 at 316.8 micrograms /m3 and PM2.5 at 206.8 micrograms/m3 at 4 pm, compared to ‘severe’ category on Tuesday. But a lot needs to be done to make things better.

Indian cricket team’s skipper Virat Kohli – who hails from Delhi – has appealed to the public to do something about it instead of looking for the cause and the finger pointing thereafter. In a short Twitter video, he described measures that the public could adopt to help the environment.

“Hi guys! We all know what the situation of pollution is like in Delhi, I wanted to bring your attention towards it because a lot of people are debating as to what’s causing it. But what are we actually doing about it? Agar humein yeh match jeetna hain pollution ke against, hum sab ko saath mein mil ke khelna hoga. Kyunki hum sabki zimmedaari hain pollution ko kam karna. Specially jo log Delhi mein rehte hain, un sabki yeh responsibility hain. [If we have to win this match against pollution, all of us will have to play together. Because this is everyone’s responsibility to reduce the pollution levels. Specially the people who live in Delhi, it is their responsibility],” he said.

On Wednesday, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal convened a joint meeting in Chandigarh to discuss residue burning and vehicular pollution issues.