🔗 Share this article

On Tuesday morning residents of the world's most polluted city were faced with breathing dangerously toxic air that fell into the "critical" category.

Record-Breaking Pollution Readings

Multiple areas of the capital showed an AQI exceeding 500, which equals a tenfold increase over the recommended limit established by the global health authority.

Certain monitoring stations, levels of toxic particulate matter reached peaks of eighteen hundred, amounting to 15 to 20 times higher than acceptable limits.

Pyrotechnics Ban and Current Developments

For the past four years, authorities had implemented a total prohibition on the distribution and bursting of pyrotechnics during celebrations due to their significant contribution to the dangerous haze that engulfs the city as the cold season approaches.

Yet earlier this year, the newly elected local leadership petitioned the highest court to seek a relaxation of the ban.

They proposed allowing "green crackers" – which have been criticized by environmental experts as being only about 30% lower impact – as a middle ground between "cultural practices and public health".

Judicial Decision and Enforcement

Despite concerns of public health and environmental campaigners, the court approved the proposal, specifying that eco-friendly pyrotechnics could be ignited during specific hours throughout the Diwali.

On Monday night, there was widespread disregard of the time restrictions across the city, with little monitoring regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the more environmentally friendly type.

Numerous air quality sensors throughout Delhi recorded contamination reaching highest levels around the night hours to some of the worst measurements seen during celebrations in at least recent memory.

International Implications

Extensive ignition of fireworks during the festival also sparked a dispute with bordering Pakistan, with representatives in Pakistani Punjab partly blaming worsening atmospheric conditions in the city of Lahore on pollutants originating in neighboring India following the events.

Long-Standing Environmental Issue

The dangerously high concentrations of air contamination in the city have remained as a serious challenge for over a decade and a half, with the situation continuing to worsen.

Near Diwali, the concentration of toxic particles in the atmosphere has been observed to shoot up to seventy percent above the most severe levels ever documented in Beijing, which was formerly viewed as the world's most polluted urban center.

Various Contamination Sources

The situation in Delhi is caused by a convergence of different contributors including transportation pollution, airborne particles, building projects, garbage fires and pollutants from crop residue ignition in neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana.

In these regions, farmers illegally burn crop residue to clear them quickly, generating hazardous smog that remains stagnant over the city as colder air arrives.

Public Health and Economic Impact

Both financial and medical toll on the roughly thirty-three million people residing in the Delhi area is enormous, according to numerous investigations.

This pollution causes high levels of neurological, heart and circulatory and respiratory diseases, and can even lead to malignancies.

The pollution is calculated to be accounting for approximately 10k untimely deaths per year in the capital.