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On Tuesday morning inhabitants of this heavily contaminated metropolis encountered breathing extremely polluted air that was classified as the "critical" category.

Extremely High Pollution Measurements

Several parts of the capital registered an AQI above 500, which represents ten times the safe threshold established by the WHO.

Certain monitoring stations, levels of PM2.5 and PM10 reached peaks of eighteen hundred, amounting to 15-20x exceeding healthy levels.

Firecracker Restrictions and Current Changes

Since 2020, authorities had implemented a complete ban on the sale and use of firecrackers during the Festival of Lights due to their major role to the dangerous pollution that engulfs the capital as the cold season begins.

Yet earlier this year, the newly elected regional government appealed to the highest court to seek a relaxation of the restrictions.

The suggestion was allowing "green crackers" – historically criticized by environmental experts as being only approximately one-third lower impact – as a balance between "tradition and public health".

Court Decision and Implementation

Despite concerns of environmental and health activists, judges agreed to the proposal, mandating that environmentally conscious fireworks could be ignited during specific hours throughout the Diwali.

During the celebrations, there was extensive disregard of the designated hours across the city, with insufficient enforcement regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the supposedly greener type.

Many monitoring devices throughout Delhi showed contamination spiking around the night hours to extremely hazardous readings recorded during Diwali in at least three years.

International Consequences

The proliferation of firecrackers during Diwali also sparked a controversy with bordering Pakistan, with representatives in Pakistan's Punjab partially attributing worsening air quality in the city of Lahore on hazardous particles traveling from across the border following the celebrations.

Long-Standing Environmental Crisis

The dangerously high concentrations of air contamination in the capital have persisted as a serious problem for more than 15 years, with the situation showing no improvement.

Around Diwali, the levels of toxic particles in the atmosphere has been observed to shoot up to significantly exceeding the most severe levels ever measured in Beijing, which was once viewed as the world's most polluted urban center.

Diverse Contamination Contributors

The problem in the capital is attributed to a combination of multiple factors including heavy vehicle emissions, airborne particles, construction activities, waste incineration and smoke from farm burning in adjacent regions of neighboring agricultural zones.

In these regions, agricultural workers routinely burn crop residue to clear them quickly, generating dangerous smog that becomes contained over the city as cooler air arrives.

Health and Economic Impact

Both financial and medical toll on the approximately 33 million residents residing in the metropolitan zone is significant, according to numerous research.

The contaminated air causes elevated rates of nervous system, heart and circulatory and breathing diseases, and can even lead to malignancies.

The pollution is estimated to be responsible for ten thousand untimely deaths per year in the capital.