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Tuesday brought residents of the world's most polluted city found themselves breathing severely hazardous air that registered in the "critical" level.

Record-Breaking Pollution Readings

Several parts of the capital showed an air quality index over 500, which represents ten times the safe limit set by the global health authority.

Certain monitoring stations, concentrations of dangerous airborne particles soared to of eighteen hundred, amounting to fifteen to twenty times higher than safe limits.

Fireworks Restrictions and New Policy Shifts

Since 2020, authorities had implemented a total prohibition on the distribution and bursting of firecrackers during Diwali due to their major role to the deadly haze that covers the city as colder weather approaches.

However earlier this year, the recently formed local administration petitioned the supreme court to request a modification of the ban.

The suggestion was allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – which have been doubted by environmentalists as being only about 30% lower impact – as a balance between "tradition and ecological concerns".

Court Ruling and Enforcement

Despite concerns of public health and environmental activists, the court complied with the appeal, mandating that green firecrackers could be set off during designated hours throughout the festival.

During the celebrations, there was considerable flouting of the regulated periods across the capital, with minimal monitoring regarding whether the firecrackers being used were actually the supposedly greener version.

Numerous monitoring devices throughout Delhi recorded pollution spiking around the night hours to the most severe measurements observed during the festival in at least recent memory.

Regional Effects

The widespread use of pyrotechnics during the celebrations also sparked a dispute with bordering the neighboring country, with authorities in Pakistani the Punjab region pointing to declining pollution levels in the city of Lahore on hazardous particles coming from India following the events.

Long-Standing Environmental Problem

The dangerously high readings of air contamination in the capital have continued as a significant issue for more than 15 years, with the situation continuing to worsen.

During celebratory seasons, the amount of toxic airborne contaminants in the atmosphere has been found to shoot up to significantly exceeding the worst levels ever recorded in China's capital, which was formerly considered as the globally most contaminated urban center.

Various Contamination Factors

The problem in Delhi is resulting from a mix of different contributors including transportation pollution, construction debris, construction activities, waste incineration and haze from farm burning in adjacent areas of neighboring agricultural zones.

In these regions, rural residents illegally set their fields on fire to clear them quickly, generating toxic smog that then gets trapped over the capital as cooler air descends.

Health and Financial Toll

Public health and economic consequences on the nearly 33 million residents calling home the capital region is enormous, according to multiple studies.

The contaminated air leads to high levels of nervous system, cardiovascular and breathing diseases, and can potentially cause malignancies.

Environmental contamination is projected to be responsible for approximately 10k untimely deaths annually in Delhi.