🔗 Share this article

On Tuesday morning inhabitants of the planet's dirtiest urban center encountered exposed to severely hazardous air that was classified as the "critical" category.

Extremely High Air Quality Readings

Several parts of the capital registered an air quality index exceeding 500, which equals 10x the safe threshold recommended by the WHO.

Certain monitoring stations, readings of PM2.5 and PM10 soared to of eighteen hundred, representing fifteen to twenty times higher than safe limits.

Firecracker Restrictions and New Policy Shifts

Beginning in 2020, officials had enforced a total prohibition on the purchase and ignition of fireworks during the Festival of Lights due to their major role to the dangerous smog that blankets the capital as the cold season approaches.

However earlier this year, the current regional leadership petitioned the highest court to propose a easing of the ban.

The suggestion was allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – historically doubted by conservation groups as being only roughly 30 percent reduced emissions – as a balance between "cultural practices and environment".

Legal Verdict and Implementation

Much to the frustration of public health and environmental campaigners, the court complied with the proposal, specifying that green firecrackers could be ignited during limited time windows throughout the Diwali.

During the celebrations, there was considerable violation of the regulated periods across the city, with little enforcement regarding whether the firecrackers being used were actually the supposedly greener type.

Many air quality sensors throughout the city recorded pollution peaking around midnight to extremely hazardous levels seen during the festival in at least three years.

International Consequences

The widespread use of firecrackers during the festival also triggered a controversy with neighbouring the neighboring country, with authorities in Pakistani the Punjab region pointing to deteriorating atmospheric conditions in their urban centers on hazardous particles coming from neighboring India following the events.

Chronic Environmental Problem

Extremely elevated levels of pollution in the city have continued as a significant challenge for over a decade and a half, with the situation gradually deteriorating.

During the festival period, the amount of hazardous airborne contaminants in the atmosphere has been observed to increase dramatically to seventy percent above the peak records ever recorded in the Chinese city, which was formerly regarded as the world's most polluted city.

Various Pollution Contributors

This crisis in Delhi is resulting from a convergence of multiple factors including automobile exhaust, dust, development work, rubbish burning and pollutants from agricultural fires in nearby areas of Punjab and Haryana.

Within these states, rural residents illegally set their fields on fire to clear them quickly, creating hazardous pollution that remains stagnant over the metropolitan area as colder air descends.

Public Health and Economic Impact

Public health and economic consequences on the nearly 33 million inhabitants residing in the capital region is substantial, according to multiple studies.

The contaminated air leads to elevated rates of nervous system, heart and circulatory and breathing disorders, and can even lead to malignancies.

The pollution is calculated to be accounting for approximately 10k premature deaths per year in Delhi.