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Tuesday brought citizens of this heavily contaminated metropolis were faced with exposed to extremely polluted air that was classified as the "critical" level.

Record-Breaking Pollution Levels

Various sections of the city registered an AQI above 500, which equals 10x the safe threshold set by the World Health Organization.

Certain monitoring stations, concentrations of dangerous airborne particles reached peaks of 1,800, representing 15-20x higher than acceptable limits.

Pyrotechnics Prohibition and Recent Policy Shifts

Since 2020, officials had implemented a total prohibition on the sale and use of pyrotechnics during Diwali due to their major role to the dangerous smog that covers the city as winter begins.

Yet in recent months, the newly elected regional government petitioned the highest court to propose a modification of the ban.

They proposed allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – historically questioned by conservation groups as being only about 30% lower impact – as a compromise between "heritage and environment".

Legal Verdict and Reality

Much to the frustration of public health and environmental campaigners, judicial authorities agreed to the appeal, mandating that green firecrackers could be used during limited time windows throughout the celebrations.

During the celebrations, there was considerable disregard of the regulated periods across the metropolis, with insufficient regulation regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the supposedly greener variety.

Numerous air quality sensors throughout Delhi registered air quality reaching highest levels around the night hours to extremely hazardous levels observed during celebrations in at least the past three years.

Cross-Border Effects

The proliferation of firecrackers during the celebrations also triggered a dispute with bordering Pakistan, with authorities in Pakistani Punjab province partly blaming declining pollution levels in the city of Lahore on contaminants coming from across the border following the events.

Long-Standing Environmental Crisis

The dangerously high levels of atmospheric toxins in the city have remained as a serious problem for over a decade and a half, with the problem gradually deteriorating.

Near Diwali, the concentration of toxic airborne contaminants in the environment has been documented to increase dramatically to seventy percent above the peak records ever measured in China's capital, which was previously viewed as the planet's dirtiest city.

Diverse Pollution Factors

This crisis in the city is caused by a convergence of various sources including transportation pollution, construction debris, construction activities, garbage fires and smoke from agricultural fires in neighbouring areas of Punjab and Haryana.

Within these states, rural residents regularly ignite agricultural waste to expedite field preparation, generating hazardous smog that then gets trapped over the metropolitan area as winter air arrives.

Health and Economic Toll

Both financial and medical toll on the nearly 33 million inhabitants living in the metropolitan zone is substantial, according to various investigations.

This pollution leads to high levels of neurological, heart and circulatory and lung conditions, and can potentially cause oncological diseases.

The pollution is projected to be causing approximately 10k untimely fatalities per year in Delhi.