🔗 Share this article

On Tuesday morning citizens of this heavily contaminated metropolis were faced with exposed to dangerously toxic air that fell into the "critical" category.

Alarming Air Quality Measurements

Several parts of Delhi showed an pollution measurement over 500, which translates to a tenfold increase over the healthy threshold set by the global health authority.

Certain monitoring stations, readings of dangerous airborne particles hit highs of 1800, amounting to fifteen to twenty times above safe limits.

Fireworks Ban and Current Developments

For the past four years, officials had enforced a complete ban on the sale and use of fireworks during the Festival of Lights due to their major role to the hazardous pollution that engulfs the city as colder weather approaches.

Nevertheless recently, the current city government approached the judicial authority to request a relaxation of the prohibition.

They proposed allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – previously doubted by environmentalists as being only approximately one-third lower impact – as a compromise between "cultural practices and environment".

Legal Ruling and Implementation

Despite concerns of environmental and health advocates, the court complied with the appeal, stipulating that eco-friendly pyrotechnics could be used during designated periods throughout the Diwali.

Throughout the festival evening, there was considerable violation of the designated hours across the capital, with insufficient enforcement regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the eco-friendly variety.

Many air quality sensors throughout the city showed contamination spiking around midnight to extremely hazardous levels seen during celebrations in at least three years.

International Consequences

The widespread use of fireworks during the festival also triggered a dispute with adjacent Pakistan, with officials in Pakistan's Punjab partially attributing declining air quality in Lahore on contaminants traveling from India following the events.

Chronic Pollution Issue

Extremely elevated readings of atmospheric toxins in the capital have continued as a serious problem for fifteen-plus years, with the problem continuing to worsen.

Around Diwali, the levels of dangerous particles in the environment has been observed to increase dramatically to significantly exceeding the most severe readings ever measured in the Chinese city, which was once considered as the planet's dirtiest urban center.

Diverse Contamination Factors

This crisis in the city is resulting from a combination of various sources including automobile exhaust, airborne particles, building projects, rubbish burning and haze from farm burning in nearby areas of neighboring agricultural zones.

In these regions, agricultural workers routinely ignite agricultural waste to expedite field preparation, producing dangerous pollution that remains stagnant over the capital as winter air arrives.

Medical and Economic Consequences

Public health and economic impact on the nearly 33 million people living in the capital region is significant, according to numerous investigations.

The contaminated air leads to increased incidence of neurological, heart and circulatory and breathing diseases, and can potentially cause oncological diseases.

The pollution is calculated to be responsible for approximately 10k early mortalities annually in the capital.