With the Air Quality Index (AQI) in several parts of Delhi-NCR breaching the`severe` category, doctors and health experts said that Delhi has taken the shape of a gas chamber with a thick layer of smog covering the city, adding that this poor air quality affects the mental development of children. The health experts of Safdarjung Hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in Delhi, said that for healthy lungs, it is necessary that the AQI remain below 60.

Voicing concerns over the declining air quality in the national capital, Dr Neeraj Kumar Gupta, Head of Pulmonology Department at Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, said, "The people living in Delhi have to breathe in the air quality, which has reached a very poor category, which may cause serious diseases."