🔗 Share this article

On Tuesday morning citizens of the planet's dirtiest urban center were faced with breathing extremely polluted air that registered in the "severe" category.

Alarming Pollution Measurements

Several parts of the capital registered an air quality index over 500, which represents ten times the recommended level established by the WHO.

Particular areas, concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 hit highs of 1800, amounting to fifteen to twenty times higher than safe standards.

Firecracker Ban and Current Changes

Since 2020, authorities had enforced a complete ban on the distribution and bursting of pyrotechnics during the Festival of Lights due to their major role to the dangerous pollution that engulfs the metropolis as winter begins.

Yet in recent months, the current city leadership approached the supreme court to propose a relaxation of the restrictions.

They proposed allowing "green crackers" – historically questioned by environmental experts as being only roughly 30 percent lower impact – as a balance between "heritage and ecological concerns".

Legal Decision and Reality

Despite concerns of public health and environmental campaigners, the court complied with the appeal, specifying that eco-friendly pyrotechnics could be ignited during designated periods throughout the celebrations.

On Monday night, there was extensive flouting of the designated hours across the metropolis, with minimal monitoring regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the supposedly greener variety.

Several air quality sensors throughout the city showed pollution reaching highest levels around midnight to extremely hazardous measurements seen during celebrations in at least recent memory.

Regional Implications

The proliferation of pyrotechnics during Diwali also triggered a controversy with neighbouring the neighboring country, with officials in Pakistan's Punjab province partly blaming worsening pollution levels in their urban centers on hazardous particles coming from neighboring India following the festivities.

Long-Standing Pollution Crisis

The dangerously high readings of air contamination in the city have remained as a significant problem for over a decade and a half, with the problem gradually deteriorating.

Near Diwali, the levels of dangerous particulate matter in the air has been found to shoot up to significantly exceeding the peak records ever measured in the Chinese city, which was formerly considered as the planet's dirtiest urban center.

Various Contamination Factors

This crisis in the city is resulting from a convergence of various sources including heavy vehicle emissions, dust, construction activities, garbage fires and haze from farm burning in nearby areas of Punjab and Haryana.

Throughout these areas, agricultural workers regularly burn crop residue to expedite field preparation, producing dangerous smog that then gets trapped over the city as cooler air sets in.

Health and Economic Consequences

Both financial and medical toll on the approximately 33 million people living in the Delhi area is substantial, according to multiple studies.

This pollution leads to increased incidence of neurological, heart and circulatory and breathing diseases, and can result in cancer.

Air quality crisis is calculated to be causing 10,000 premature fatalities annually in the capital.