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On Tuesday morning citizens of the world's most polluted city found themselves breathing extremely polluted air that registered in the "critical" range.

Alarming Air Quality Readings

Multiple areas of the city registered an AQI above 500, which represents ten times the healthy level recommended by the global health authority.

Certain monitoring stations, concentrations of dangerous airborne particles reached peaks of eighteen hundred, equating to fifteen to twenty times exceeding acceptable levels.

Pyrotechnics Ban and Recent Policy Shifts

For the past four years, authorities had implemented a comprehensive restriction on the purchase and ignition of fireworks during Diwali due to their substantial impact to the dangerous haze that blankets the capital as winter begins.

Yet earlier this year, the recently formed regional leadership petitioned the highest court to propose a easing of the prohibition.

Officials advocated for allowing "eco-friendly fireworks" – historically doubted by environmental experts as being only approximately one-third lower impact – as a compromise between "cultural practices and ecological concerns".

Judicial Decision and Enforcement

To the disappointment of public health and environmental campaigners, judicial authorities complied with the proposal, stipulating that eco-friendly pyrotechnics could be used during specific time windows throughout the celebrations.

On Monday night, there was extensive disregard of the time restrictions across the capital, with little enforcement regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the more environmentally friendly version.

Several recording stations throughout Delhi registered pollution reaching highest levels around late evening to extremely hazardous readings observed during the festival in at least three years.

International Consequences

The widespread use of fireworks during the celebrations also sparked a controversy with neighbouring Pakistan, with representatives in Pakistan's the Punjab region partly blaming declining air quality in the city of Lahore on hazardous particles originating in neighboring India following the events.

Chronic Pollution Crisis

Alarmingly severe concentrations of pollution in the city have persisted as a major challenge for more than 15 years, with the problem gradually deteriorating.

During Diwali, the concentration of toxic airborne contaminants in the air has been observed to spike to seventy percent above the most severe records ever recorded in the Chinese city, which was once considered as the globally most contaminated city.

Diverse Pollution Contributors

The problem in the city is attributed to a mix of multiple factors including automobile exhaust, dust, development work, rubbish burning and haze from farm burning in adjacent areas of farming communities.

Within these states, agricultural workers routinely burn crop residue to clear them quickly, generating dangerous pollution that remains stagnant over the city as cooler air arrives.

Health and Financial Toll

The economic and health impact on the approximately 33 million inhabitants calling home the capital region is significant, according to various research.

The contaminated air leads to elevated rates of nervous system, cardiovascular and respiratory disorders, and can even lead to malignancies.

Environmental contamination is projected to be causing 10,000 premature fatalities per year in the city.