🔗 Share this article

As Tuesday dawned citizens of the planet's dirtiest urban center encountered breathing severely hazardous air that registered in the "critical" level.

Record-Breaking Air Quality Readings

Multiple areas of the capital registered an AQI exceeding 500, which equals a tenfold increase over the safe threshold recommended by the global health authority.

In some locations, concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 hit highs of eighteen hundred, representing 15 to 20 times exceeding healthy limits.

Firecracker Prohibition and Recent Policy Shifts

Beginning in 2020, the government had enforced a complete ban on the sale and use of pyrotechnics during Diwali due to their major role to the dangerous smog that engulfs the metropolis as winter approaches.

However earlier this year, the newly elected city administration approached the judicial authority to propose a modification of the prohibition.

The suggestion was allowing "green crackers" – historically doubted by environmentalists as being only about 30% less polluting – as a middle ground between "heritage and environment".

Court Verdict and Implementation

To the disappointment of public health and environmental advocates, judges approved the appeal, mandating that eco-friendly pyrotechnics could be ignited during designated time windows throughout the Diwali.

On Monday night, there was considerable flouting of the designated hours across the capital, with insufficient regulation regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the supposedly greener type.

Many monitoring devices throughout the capital registered pollution spiking around midnight to some of the worst readings recorded during the festival in at least recent memory.

International Consequences

The proliferation of fireworks during the festival also triggered a blame game with adjacent Pakistan, with officials in Pakistani Punjab partly blaming declining air quality in Lahore on pollutants traveling from across the border following the festivities.

Long-Standing Environmental Issue

Extremely elevated readings of air contamination in Delhi have remained as a significant issue for over a decade and a half, with the problem showing no improvement.

Near Diwali, the levels of toxic airborne contaminants in the atmosphere has been found to shoot up to 70% higher the peak levels ever measured in Beijing, which was once viewed as the world's most polluted city.

Various Contamination Factors

This crisis in Delhi is resulting from a mix of different contributors including heavy vehicle emissions, dust, development work, garbage fires and haze from agricultural fires in nearby states of farming communities.

Throughout these areas, agricultural workers illegally burn crop residue to clear them quickly, generating dangerous haze that then gets trapped over the metropolitan area as cooler air descends.

Health and Financial Consequences

Public health and economic consequences on the nearly 33 million residents calling home the capital region is enormous, according to various research.

This pollution causes increased incidence of nervous system, heart and circulatory and breathing disorders, and can potentially cause cancer.

Environmental contamination is projected to be responsible for 10,000 premature mortalities annually in the capital.