As traffic stalls in poor visibility and people die
                 from the cold, experts grope for a cause, with some
                 blaming it on pollution while others on nature

                 By NIRMAL GHOSH
                       INDIA CORRESPONDENT

                 WHEN teachers Saikat and Neeru Das set out early on
                 Jan 1 for New Delhi from their school up in Champawat
                 in the Garhwal Himalayas, they reached the Ganges at a
                 small town called Brijghat at about 10 am.

                 From there it should have taken them just three hours to
                 get to the capital.

                 But in the plains they ran into a thick blanket of fog and
                 thousands of vehicles inching along the highway.

                 The journey to New Delhi from there took them a
                 further 10 hours.

                 The next evening, Delhi resident Kishore Sharma left his
                 wife in their car and went to a shop to buy something.
                 Stepping out of the shop, he could not find his car, so
                 thick was the fog that had built up in minutes.

                 That evening, many ended up sleeping in their cars,
                 unable to reach home because of the poor visibility.

                 An intense cold wave and thick fog has sat upon the
                 north Indian plains for the last few days, disrupting life,
                 causing major losses, and even taking lives as the poor
                 and homeless succumb to the cold and careless drivers
                 crash in zero visibility.

                 At least 73 people are reported to have died of cold
                 across north India over the past week.

                 In the capital, night temperatures are hovering around 4
                 to 5 deg C.

                 The fog phenomenon has always caused problems at
                 New Delhi's airport and in the low-lying lands around
                 the capital.

                 But the 1998-99 winter heralded a new and thicker fog
                 that paralysed life and cost airlines millions.

                 This year the fog came later, but when it did it was
                 equally serious. The government has set up a task force
                 to study the phenomenon, drawing experts from
                 different, weather-related scientific fields.

                 "What we are experiencing right now is predominantly
                 fog formation due to meteorological conditions," said
                 Central Pollution Control Board chairman Dilip Biswas
                 this week -- discounting pollution's role.

                 But Indian Meteorological Department director S. C.
                 Gupta said: "The smoke is indeed expediting fog
                 formation due to fast condensation of moisture."

                 He said fog conditions are laid during the day when
                 smoke levels go up and moisture levels drop to about 48
                 per cent. Towards evening as moisture levels increase,
                 fog builds.

                 A senior official from the capital's environmental
                 department said: "A recent assessment reveals that not
                 only is fog more dense in Delhi, it takes even more time
                 to disperse. This is largely due to air pollution."

                 Officials have gone on record to state that the capital's
                 government must seriously undertake long-term
                 measures to minimise pollution, rather than short-term
                 ones that fizzle out without changing conditions.

                 New Delhi is one of the most polluted cities in the world.
                 With the cold wave and the fog, doctors are warning the
                 public against exposure and the threat of pneumonia.

                 In the countryside, the fog is compounded by smoke
                 emissions from thousands of crude village stoves and
                 wood fires, as the population strives to keep warm
                 against bitter winds sweeping across the plains.

                 Yet if one climbs a mere 200 m above sea level, the
                 atmosphere is clear and the sky a sharp blue.

                       Adapted from The Straits Times, 8 Jan 2000.