Hundreds of New Delhi students march to demand cleaner air

NEW DELHI – Hundreds of students have marched in India's capital to demand action to improve the city's toxic air.

New Delhi has been wrapped in a choking haze for much of the past week. The smog did lift a little in time for Wednesday's march at Nehru Park by students from 15 private schools.

The march was organized by representatives from the United Nations, private schools and the Sonalika company, a tractor maker.

Thirteen-year-old Charvi Thakkar said she felt the pollution had risen to an extreme level and that her grandmother, uncle and brother were no longer able to comfortably breathe.

Meanwhile, authorities opened themselves to ridicule after India's health minister favorably compared the capital's air to a massive 1984 gas leak in the city of Bhopal that killed 15,000 people.