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On Tuesday morning citizens of the planet's dirtiest urban center found themselves breathing severely hazardous air that fell into the "alarming" category.

Alarming Air Quality Levels

Multiple areas of Delhi recorded an pollution measurement above 500, which translates to 10x the safe limit established by the WHO.

Certain monitoring stations, levels of dangerous airborne particles soared to of 1800, representing 15-20x above acceptable limits.

Pyrotechnics Restrictions and Current Changes

Since 2020, officials had enforced a total prohibition on the distribution and bursting of firecrackers during the Festival of Lights due to their major role to the dangerous smog that blankets the capital as the cold season sets in.

However recently, the newly elected city government approached the supreme court to propose a relaxation of the prohibition.

They proposed allowing "green crackers" – historically doubted by environmentalists as being only roughly 30 percent lower impact – as a middle ground between "tradition and public health".

Court Decision and Implementation

To the disappointment of public health and environmental activists, the court complied with the proposal, mandating that environmentally conscious fireworks could be ignited during specific time windows throughout the celebrations.

Throughout the festival evening, there was widespread flouting of the time restrictions across the capital, with insufficient monitoring regarding whether the firecrackers being used were actually the supposedly greener version.

Many air quality sensors throughout the city registered contamination reaching highest levels around the night hours to extremely hazardous readings recorded during celebrations in at least the past three years.

Cross-Border Consequences

Extensive ignition of firecrackers during Diwali also sparked a dispute with adjacent Pakistan, with officials in Pakistani Punjab partially attributing worsening atmospheric conditions in Lahore on contaminants traveling from India following the celebrations.

Persistent Environmental Problem

Extremely elevated concentrations of pollution in the capital have remained as a serious problem for over a decade and a half, with the problem showing no improvement.

Near the festival period, the amount of toxic particulate matter in the atmosphere has been found to shoot up to significantly exceeding the most severe levels ever documented in the Chinese city, which was previously considered as the planet's dirtiest metropolis.

Various Pollution Sources

This crisis in the capital is resulting from a convergence of various sources including transportation pollution, dust, building projects, waste incineration and smoke from crop residue ignition in neighbouring areas of Punjab and Haryana.

In these regions, agricultural workers illegally set their fields on fire to clear them quickly, creating dangerous smog that becomes contained over the metropolitan area as cooler air descends.

Public Health and Economic Toll

Public health and economic toll on the nearly 33 million residents residing in the metropolitan zone is substantial, according to various studies.

The contaminated air causes increased incidence of neurological, heart and circulatory and breathing conditions, and can result in malignancies.

Environmental contamination is projected to be accounting for ten thousand early deaths per year in Delhi.