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On Tuesday morning residents of the world's most polluted city found themselves exposed to dangerously toxic air that registered in the "alarming" level.

Alarming Pollution Levels

Multiple areas of Delhi showed an pollution measurement exceeding 500, which equals ten times the healthy threshold recommended by the WHO.

In some locations, concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 reached peaks of 1,800, equating to 15 to 20 times above safe levels.

Pyrotechnics Restrictions and Current Policy Shifts

For the past four years, the government had enforced a comprehensive restriction on the purchase and ignition of fireworks during Diwali due to their significant contribution to the deadly pollution that blankets the metropolis as winter approaches.

Nevertheless earlier this year, the current local government approached the highest court to seek a modification of the ban.

They proposed allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – historically criticized by environmentalists as being only about 30% lower impact – as a compromise between "cultural practices and environment".

Legal Ruling and Reality

Despite concerns of medical and ecological activists, the court complied with the appeal, mandating that eco-friendly pyrotechnics could be ignited during designated hours throughout the Diwali.

Throughout the festival evening, there was widespread flouting of the designated hours across the metropolis, with minimal monitoring regarding whether the firecrackers being used were actually the supposedly greener version.

Numerous monitoring devices throughout Delhi showed air quality spiking around midnight to extremely hazardous measurements recorded during celebrations in at least recent memory.

Regional Consequences

The proliferation of pyrotechnics during Diwali also triggered a blame game with bordering the neighboring country, with officials in Pakistani Punjab pointing to deteriorating air quality in the city of Lahore on contaminants originating in India following the celebrations.

Long-Standing Environmental Issue

The dangerously high readings of atmospheric toxins in Delhi have remained as a serious issue for fifteen-plus years, with the situation continuing to worsen.

Around the festival period, the levels of hazardous particles in the air has been found to shoot up to 70% higher the peak levels ever measured in the Chinese city, which was formerly considered as the planet's dirtiest city.

Various Contamination Factors

This crisis in Delhi is attributed to a mix of different contributors including heavy vehicle emissions, airborne particles, development work, rubbish burning and smoke from agricultural fires in neighbouring regions of Punjab and Haryana.

In these regions, agricultural workers illegally set their fields on fire to clear them quickly, creating toxic haze that then gets trapped over the city as cooler air arrives.

Public Health and Economic Toll

Both financial and medical impact on the nearly 33 million inhabitants calling home the capital region is significant, according to multiple research.

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

Air quality crisis is calculated to be responsible for approximately 10k untimely deaths annually in Delhi.