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Tuesday brought inhabitants of this heavily contaminated metropolis found themselves breathing dangerously toxic air that fell into the "critical" category.

Extremely High Air Quality Measurements

Multiple areas of Delhi showed an AQI exceeding 500, which equals 10x the healthy limit set by the World Health Organization.

Certain monitoring stations, readings of PM2.5 and PM10 reached peaks of 1,800, amounting to 15 to 20 times higher than healthy standards.

Firecracker Ban and Recent Policy Shifts

Since 2020, the government had maintained a comprehensive restriction on the distribution and bursting of fireworks during Diwali due to their substantial impact to the deadly smog that blankets the metropolis as the cold season sets in.

Yet recently, the current city leadership appealed to the judicial authority to seek a relaxation of the restrictions.

The suggestion was allowing "green crackers" – previously questioned by environmental experts as being only approximately one-third lower impact – as a middle ground between "tradition and ecological concerns".

Court Ruling and Implementation

Despite concerns of public health and environmental campaigners, judicial authorities approved the appeal, specifying that environmentally conscious fireworks could be used during specific time windows throughout the festival.

Throughout the festival evening, there was widespread disregard of the regulated periods across the metropolis, with minimal monitoring regarding whether the firecrackers being used were actually the eco-friendly type.

Several monitoring devices throughout the city showed pollution reaching highest levels around late evening to the most severe measurements seen during celebrations in at least three years.

Cross-Border Effects

The widespread use of firecrackers during the festival also sparked a blame game with neighbouring Pakistan, with officials in Pakistani the Punjab region partially attributing deteriorating pollution levels in the city of Lahore on hazardous particles coming from across the border following the events.

Chronic Environmental Problem

Extremely elevated readings of pollution in Delhi have remained as a significant issue for more than 15 years, with the situation gradually deteriorating.

Near celebratory seasons, the levels of dangerous particulate matter in the environment has been documented to increase dramatically to seventy percent above the worst readings ever recorded in China's capital, which was once considered as the globally most contaminated urban center.

Multiple Pollution Contributors

The problem in the capital is attributed to a combination of different contributors including transportation pollution, construction debris, construction activities, garbage fires and haze from agricultural fires in nearby regions of farming communities.

In these regions, agricultural workers routinely ignite agricultural waste to clear them quickly, creating toxic haze that becomes contained over the metropolitan area as cooler air arrives.

Health and Economic Toll

Public health and economic toll on the nearly 33 million people living in the capital region is substantial, according to multiple investigations.

The contaminated air causes increased incidence of nervous system, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and can potentially cause malignancies.

The pollution is projected to be accounting for ten thousand early fatalities annually in the city.