🔗 Share this article

As Tuesday dawned citizens of the world's most polluted city were faced with exposed to severely hazardous air that was classified as the "alarming" range.

Extremely High Air Quality Levels

Several parts of the capital showed an air quality index exceeding 500, which equals a tenfold increase over the safe limit established by the World Health Organization.

Particular areas, concentrations of toxic particulate matter soared to of eighteen hundred, amounting to 15 to 20 times higher than healthy levels.

Pyrotechnics Prohibition and Current Changes

Since 2020, the government had implemented a comprehensive restriction on the distribution and bursting of fireworks during the Festival of Lights due to their significant contribution to the dangerous haze that covers the city as winter approaches.

Yet earlier this year, the current local administration appealed to the supreme court to seek a relaxation of the ban.

They proposed allowing "eco-friendly fireworks" – which have been doubted by environmental experts as being only approximately one-third less polluting – as a compromise between "tradition and environment".

Legal Decision and Enforcement

Despite concerns of environmental and health activists, judges approved the appeal, specifying that environmentally conscious fireworks could be ignited during specific periods throughout the Diwali.

On Monday night, there was widespread flouting of the designated hours across the metropolis, with minimal regulation regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the eco-friendly version.

Many air quality sensors throughout the city recorded air quality reaching highest levels around midnight to some of the worst readings recorded during Diwali in at least the past three years.

International Implications

The proliferation of fireworks during the festival also triggered a dispute with neighbouring the neighboring country, with officials in Pakistan's Punjab pointing to declining air quality in Lahore on hazardous particles coming from India following the events.

Long-Standing Pollution Problem

Extremely elevated concentrations of pollution in the city have remained as a significant issue for over a decade and a half, with the situation showing no improvement.

Around the festival period, the levels of dangerous particles in the environment has been observed to increase dramatically to significantly exceeding the most severe levels ever documented in China's capital, which was formerly regarded as the world's most polluted urban center.

Various Pollution Sources

The problem in the capital is attributed to a mix of different contributors including automobile exhaust, construction debris, construction activities, rubbish burning and haze from agricultural fires in neighbouring states of farming communities.

In these regions, farmers regularly set their fields on fire to expedite field preparation, generating hazardous smog that becomes contained over the metropolitan area as winter air arrives.

Health and Financial Toll

Both financial and medical toll on the roughly thirty-three million people calling home the Delhi area is substantial, according to various investigations.

This pollution leads to elevated rates of nervous system, heart and circulatory and lung disorders, and can potentially cause cancer.

Environmental contamination is calculated to be accounting for 10,000 early mortalities annually in the capital.