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       Toxic Air Is No Reason to Stay Inside for Delhi’s Joggers and Yoga Fans

       In India’s capital, skipping exercise and the social routines that often come with it is seen as worse than going out and breathing poison.

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       Practicing yoga in Lodhi Garden with smog lingering over India’s capital city, New Delhi, on Wednesday. Credit...Elke Scholiers for The New York Times

       By Sameer Yasir

       Reporting from New Delhi

       Nov. 12, 2023

       A few steps into his early-morning run, Purushottam Sahu struggled to breathe. He started coughing. He felt as if he might vomit.

       Overhead, a thick brown-gray haze blanketed the sprawling forest park in New Delhi where he and other joggers, yoga enthusiasts and dog owners were keeping to their daily habits despite official warnings against exerting themselves in the toxic air.

       “We are all jogging faster toward death,” said Mr. Sahu, 46. “Because we have no other choice.”

       Every year in the late fall, as air pollution in the Indian capital climbs to noxious extremes, the government takes emergency measures like closing schools, restricting traffic and banning construction. But for the region’s 30 million inhabitants, life must go on, and for many in this urban expanse of lush parks and morning strolls, that means trying to remain active.

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       People working out in Sanjay Van Park in the early morning in New Delhi. CreditCredit...Elke Scholiers for The New York Times

       For them, the calculation is that staying inside and skipping exercise — altering routines and forgoing the socializing that comes with them — is worse than going out and breathing poison.

       Delhi’s skies began their annual descent into darkness more than a week ago, after farmers in neighboring agrarian states started burning rice stubble. The air pollution problem, which is also related to factors like falling temperatures, vehicle exhaust and coal-fired power plants, has persisted as politicians have approached the issue mostly as something to fight over.

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