Two years ago, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and wife Duchess of Cornwall Camilla arrived in a thick Delhi smog. The air in the capital doesn’t seem very welcoming this time, again, as the Prince of Wales makes his tenth visit to India. He arrives in New Delhi on November 13, on a two-day tour.
According to SAFAR, the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air monitoring arm, with an anticipated increase in stubble burning in nearby areas, doubled with a decrease in surface wind speed over Delhi, the share of biomass in Delhi’s air is likely to hit 25 per cent by Tuesday. This means that the Air Quality Index will read ‘severe’.
The air may not be good, but this would perhaps be as good a time as any for Prince Charles to be meeting Indian meteorologists to hear about climate resilience and natural disaster preparedness. The Prince is a leading voice in climate change mitigation and protecting the environment. He was the recipient of the GCC Global Leader of Change award in 2017. He will also attend a round-table discussion with Indian business leaders on sustainable market initiatives.
The Prince will meet President Ram Nath Kovind for a bilateral discussion and will also visit a Gurudwara to mark Gurupurab, the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. The name of the gurudwara he will visit has not been released yet. On a previous visit to India in 2006, he had visited the Gurudwara Anand Sahib. He is also scheduled to attend a military service to commemorate the sacrifices of soldiers from the Commonwealth nations during the two World Wars. Next year will mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Prince Charles will be celebrating his 71st birthday while in India. He was born on November 14, 1948. He had also ushered in his 65th birthday on Indian soil, but in a much cleaner environment at Kumarakom, Kerala during a 2013 tour with Camilla.
