Lahore [Pakistan], November 12 (HBTV): Thick, toxic smog clouds enveloping the Pakistani city of Lahore, which has been reeling under severe pollution, are now visible from space, according to satellite imagery taken by the US space agency NASA, Geo News reported. 

Various cities in Pakistan, including major ones like Multan and Islamabad, are battling the smog crisis.

Geo News reported that the cities of Lahore and Multan have been blanketed by the dark haze, which has engulfed streets and blocked buildings from view. 

According to the Swiss air quality technology company IQAir, Lahore on Tuesday was found to have the most polluted air in the world. At noon, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Lahore stood at 429, with one locality showing a real-time AQI reading of 720. 

The deteriorating air quality in Pakistan prompted UNICEF to issue a warning that the highly polluted air in Punjab is posing severe risks to people, including more than 11 million children under the age of five, Geo News observed.

It stated that hundreds of people, including dozens of children, have been hospitalized in hard-hit cities, and the pollution is so severe that it is visible from space. 

"As smog continues to persist in Punjab province, I am extremely concerned about the well-being of young children who are forced to breathe polluted, toxic air," said Pakistan UNICEF representative Abdullah Fadil in a statement issued in Islamabad. 

It is also important to note that the pollution has forced authorities in Pakistan to close schools and public spaces because the smog threatens the health of tens of millions of people, Geo News noted.

Officials in Lahore have deemed this season unprecedented, even though major South Asian cities suffer from poisonous smog each year. 

Experts stated that the severe pollution in Lahore can no longer be dismissed as seasonal, with hazardous smog persisting even in the summer months, a sign of "systemic environmental mismanagement." 

The crisis stems not just from stubble burning but from uncontrolled vehicular emissions, outdated industrial practices, and ineffective environmental oversight.   

(ANI)