🔗 Share this article

On Tuesday morning residents of the world's most polluted city encountered breathing severely hazardous air that registered in the "critical" level.

Alarming Pollution Levels

Multiple areas of the city recorded an pollution measurement over 500, which equals a tenfold increase over the recommended level set by the WHO.

Certain monitoring stations, readings of toxic particulate matter reached peaks of 1,800, representing 15 to 20 times exceeding safe limits.

Firecracker Ban and New Changes

For the past four years, the government had enforced a total prohibition on the sale and use of firecrackers during celebrations due to their substantial impact to the deadly smog that blankets the metropolis as the cold season begins.

Yet recently, the current regional government approached the highest court to propose a relaxation of the ban.

The suggestion was allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – which have been criticized by environmentalists as being only approximately one-third less polluting – as a compromise between "tradition and ecological concerns".

Judicial Decision and Enforcement

To the disappointment of environmental and health activists, judicial authorities complied with the proposal, mandating that environmentally conscious fireworks could be ignited during specific time windows throughout the festival.

Throughout the festival evening, there was extensive flouting of the designated hours across the metropolis, with insufficient monitoring regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the supposedly greener variety.

Several monitoring devices throughout Delhi recorded contamination reaching highest levels around the night hours to some of the worst measurements observed during celebrations in at least the past three years.

Cross-Border Consequences

The proliferation of firecrackers during the festival also triggered a dispute with adjacent Pakistan, with authorities in Pakistan's Punjab partly blaming declining air quality in the city of Lahore on contaminants traveling from India following the festivities.

Chronic Pollution Problem

The dangerously high concentrations of air contamination in the city have remained as a significant challenge for fifteen-plus years, with the situation continuing to worsen.

Near celebratory seasons, the concentration of dangerous particulate matter in the atmosphere has been found to spike to significantly exceeding the peak records ever recorded in Beijing, which was previously regarded as the planet's dirtiest city.

Various Contamination Sources

The problem in the city is attributed to a convergence of various sources including transportation pollution, airborne particles, construction activities, rubbish burning and pollutants from farm burning in nearby regions of Punjab and Haryana.

In these regions, farmers illegally burn crop residue to prepare for next season, generating dangerous pollution that then gets trapped over the metropolitan area as colder air arrives.

Medical and Financial Toll

Public health and economic toll on the roughly thirty-three million residents calling home the metropolitan zone is substantial, according to multiple studies.

This pollution causes elevated rates of nervous system, cardiovascular and lung diseases, and can potentially cause oncological diseases.

Environmental contamination is calculated to be causing ten thousand untimely mortalities annually in the city.