🔗 Share this article

Tuesday brought residents of this heavily contaminated metropolis were faced with breathing extremely polluted air that registered in the "severe" level.

Alarming Air Quality Levels

Multiple areas of the capital showed an AQI over 500, which equals a tenfold increase over the healthy limit recommended by the WHO.

Particular areas, levels of PM2.5 and PM10 reached peaks of eighteen hundred, equating to 15-20x exceeding safe levels.

Firecracker Prohibition and Current Policy Shifts

Beginning in 2020, the government had implemented a total prohibition on the purchase and ignition of pyrotechnics during celebrations due to their significant contribution to the hazardous haze that covers the capital as winter begins.

Yet recently, the newly elected regional administration appealed to the judicial authority to propose a modification of the restrictions.

The suggestion was allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – historically doubted by environmental experts as being only approximately one-third lower impact – as a middle ground between "tradition and environment".

Judicial Ruling and Reality

To the disappointment of public health and environmental campaigners, the court complied with the proposal, mandating that green firecrackers could be used during limited hours throughout the festival.

Throughout the festival evening, there was considerable flouting of the designated hours across the metropolis, with insufficient monitoring regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the supposedly greener type.

Many monitoring devices throughout Delhi registered contamination reaching highest levels around midnight to some of the worst levels recorded during Diwali in at least recent memory.

International Consequences

The widespread use of fireworks during the celebrations also sparked a controversy with bordering Pakistan, with authorities in Pakistani Punjab province partly blaming declining air quality in their urban centers on pollutants coming from neighboring India following the festivities.

Persistent Pollution Issue

Alarmingly severe levels of atmospheric toxins in the capital have remained as a significant challenge for over a decade and a half, with the condition continuing to worsen.

During Diwali, the concentration of toxic airborne contaminants in the environment has been found to shoot up to seventy percent above the most severe levels ever documented in China's capital, which was once considered as the planet's dirtiest metropolis.

Various Contamination Factors

This crisis in the city is attributed to a convergence of various sources including heavy vehicle emissions, construction debris, building projects, waste incineration and pollutants from agricultural fires in neighbouring states of farming communities.

Within these states, rural residents illegally burn crop residue to prepare for next season, generating hazardous smog that becomes contained over the metropolitan area as colder air descends.

Health and Financial Toll

Public health and economic impact on the roughly thirty-three million people residing in the metropolitan zone is substantial, according to multiple investigations.

These hazardous conditions leads to elevated rates of neurological, heart and circulatory and respiratory conditions, and can potentially cause cancer.

Air quality crisis is estimated to be causing ten thousand premature deaths per year in the city.