🔗 Share this article

On Tuesday morning inhabitants of the world's most polluted city encountered inhaling dangerously toxic air that registered in the "alarming" category.

Alarming Air Quality Measurements

Multiple areas of Delhi registered an AQI over 500, which translates to a tenfold increase over the recommended level set by the global health authority.

Particular areas, readings of PM2.5 and PM10 reached peaks of 1,800, representing 15 to 20 times higher than healthy levels.

Fireworks Prohibition and Recent Policy Shifts

For the past four years, officials had maintained a total prohibition on the purchase and ignition of pyrotechnics during celebrations due to their major role to the dangerous pollution that blankets the capital as winter sets in.

Nevertheless earlier this year, the newly elected regional government petitioned the highest court to propose a easing of the ban.

The suggestion was allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – historically criticized by environmental experts as being only about 30% less polluting – as a middle ground between "heritage and environment".

Court Verdict and Implementation

To the disappointment of medical and ecological campaigners, judges approved the request, stipulating that green firecrackers could be used during specific periods throughout the festival.

Throughout the festival evening, there was widespread flouting of the time restrictions across the city, with insufficient enforcement regarding whether the firecrackers being used were actually the more environmentally friendly version.

Several monitoring devices throughout the city registered pollution spiking around late evening to some of the worst readings seen during celebrations in at least recent memory.

International Consequences

Extensive ignition of firecrackers during the celebrations also initiated a blame game with adjacent the neighboring country, with authorities in Pakistan's the Punjab region pointing to worsening atmospheric conditions in Lahore on pollutants originating in across the border following the events.

Persistent Pollution Crisis

The dangerously high concentrations of pollution in the city have remained as a serious problem for fifteen-plus years, with the condition showing no improvement.

Around the festival period, the amount of toxic particles in the air has been found to increase dramatically to significantly exceeding the most severe levels ever measured in the Chinese city, which was once regarded as the planet's dirtiest metropolis.

Multiple Contamination Contributors

This crisis in the capital is attributed to a combination of various sources including automobile exhaust, airborne particles, building projects, waste incineration and pollutants from farm burning in neighbouring areas of neighboring agricultural zones.

Throughout these areas, rural residents routinely burn crop residue to clear them quickly, producing hazardous smog that then gets trapped over the metropolitan area as cooler air sets in.

Public Health and Economic Consequences

Public health and economic consequences on the nearly 33 million residents calling home the metropolitan zone is enormous, according to multiple research.

This pollution leads to increased incidence of nervous system, heart and circulatory and breathing conditions, and can result in malignancies.

Environmental contamination is calculated to be causing ten thousand early deaths annually in the capital.