Giant filters may curb Delhi's menacing polluted air 

An estimated 2.5 million people die of pollution in India every year, claims a Reuters report published almost a year ago. The report cites scientists who estimated around 2.5 million deaths in India in the year 2015 caused by pollution and related ailments.

A deadly combination of fog and escalating air pollution envelops Delhi and most parts of the country every year with the onset of the winter season.

From introducing gigantic water-spraying guns, smog-fighting machines, to initiating the 'odd-even' formula to keep vehicles off the Delhi roads, the Kejriwal government in the past has grappled to devise measures to curb the rise in air pollution in the national capital.

Interestingly, the solution to Delhi's pollution woes seems to be in a novel concept introduced by a Dubai-based architecture firm called Znera.

Imagine interconnected gigantic towers sprawled across the national capital, capable of cleaning Delhi's polluted air.

According to the firm, concept mammoth air-purifying towers, as high as a whopping 300 feet, could be installed across the city to continuously fight the rise in pollutants in the air.

Znera's imaginative concept called 'The Smog Project' has been shortlisted for the Experimental Future Project of the Year award 2018 at the World Architecture Festival.

It proposes air-purifying models, installed across the city, capable of catching the pollutants from the base of its structure and pumping fresh, clean air from the top of it with the help of giant air pumps.

According to experts, one concept tower could produce 3.2 cubic meters of clean air every day and can provide pollutant-free air around the 3-kilometre radius surrounding the tower.

The pictures of the concept paint Delhi in a completely different light, the one where the national capital looks like a scene lifted straight out of a sci-fi movie. It also sketches the possibility of a dystopian future wherein such drastic steps would become inevitable to curb the rise in air pollution.

The experts and architects behind the concept don't see the 'The Smog Project' as the ultimate reality according to them, the inception and culmination of the idea behind the project was to make people realise that this, or something similar, could be the reality in the coming future if nothing substantial is done to curb air pollution.

India fared worst, with 2.5 million people dying early because of pollution, followed by China with 1.8 million deaths in the year 2015, according to The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, a two-year initiative seeking to highlight the issue.

“People in poorer countries - like construction workers in New Delhi - are more exposed to air pollution and less able to protect themselves from exposure, as they walk, bike or ride the bus to workplaces that may also be polluted,” news agency Reuters reported.

Exposure to high levels of air pollution, especially over many years, can affect human respiratory and inflammatory systems and can lead to heart disease, stroke and lung cancer.