🔗 Share this article

Tuesday brought citizens of the world's most polluted city found themselves inhaling extremely polluted air that registered in the "severe" range.

Extremely High Air Quality Readings

Several parts of the city registered an air quality index over 500, which equals ten times the safe limit recommended by the WHO.

Particular areas, concentrations of dangerous airborne particles hit highs of eighteen hundred, amounting to fifteen to twenty times exceeding healthy limits.

Firecracker Restrictions and Current Policy Shifts

Beginning in 2020, the government had enforced a total prohibition on the purchase and ignition of pyrotechnics during Diwali due to their significant contribution to the deadly smog that covers the metropolis as colder weather begins.

Yet earlier this year, the current local leadership appealed to the judicial authority to seek a relaxation of the restrictions.

The suggestion was allowing "eco-friendly fireworks" – historically criticized by environmental experts as being only roughly 30 percent less polluting – as a compromise between "tradition and ecological concerns".

Legal Ruling and Implementation

Despite concerns of medical and ecological campaigners, judges complied with the request, mandating that environmentally conscious fireworks could be ignited during specific hours throughout the festival.

During the celebrations, there was extensive flouting of the designated hours across the metropolis, with insufficient regulation regarding whether the firecrackers being used were actually the supposedly greener version.

Many recording stations throughout the city registered pollution reaching highest levels around the night hours to extremely hazardous levels recorded during the festival in at least recent memory.

Regional Effects

The proliferation of fireworks during the festival also initiated a blame game with adjacent Pakistan, with authorities in Pakistan's Punjab province partially attributing worsening atmospheric conditions in their urban centers on pollutants traveling from India following the festivities.

Long-Standing Environmental Crisis

The dangerously high readings of atmospheric toxins in the city have continued as a significant challenge for over a decade and a half, with the situation gradually deteriorating.

During celebratory seasons, the levels of hazardous airborne contaminants in the atmosphere has been documented to increase dramatically to significantly exceeding the most severe records ever recorded in China's capital, which was previously viewed as the globally most contaminated metropolis.

Various Pollution Factors

This crisis in the city is caused by a mix of multiple factors including automobile exhaust, airborne particles, building projects, garbage fires and pollutants from farm burning in nearby areas of neighboring agricultural zones.

Throughout these areas, farmers routinely burn crop residue to expedite field preparation, generating toxic haze that becomes contained over the capital as cooler air descends.

Health and Financial Consequences

Public health and economic toll on the approximately 33 million residents calling home the metropolitan zone is substantial, according to multiple studies.

These hazardous conditions results in increased incidence of neurological, heart and circulatory and lung diseases, and can result in cancer.

The pollution is estimated to be causing approximately 10k untimely deaths annually in Delhi.