India's capital Awakens to Toxic Pollution Post Diwali

On Tuesday morning residents of the world's most polluted city were faced with breathing severely hazardous air that was classified as the "critical" level.

Alarming Pollution Levels

Multiple areas of Delhi showed an AQI above 500, which equals 10x the healthy level established by the WHO.

In some locations, concentrations of dangerous airborne particles reached peaks of eighteen hundred, equating to fifteen to twenty times exceeding acceptable limits.

Firecracker Restrictions and Current Changes

For the past four years, the government had implemented a complete ban on the distribution and bursting of pyrotechnics during Diwali due to their major role to the deadly smog that covers the capital as winter approaches.

However recently, the newly elected local leadership approached the supreme court to request a easing of the prohibition.

Officials advocated for allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – historically doubted by conservation groups as being only roughly 30 percent less polluting – as a balance between "heritage and environment".

Judicial Ruling and Reality

Despite concerns of public health and environmental campaigners, judicial authorities complied with the request, specifying that green firecrackers could be set off during specific periods throughout the celebrations.

Throughout the festival evening, there was extensive disregard of the time restrictions across the city, with minimal enforcement regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the supposedly greener type.

Many recording stations throughout the city registered pollution spiking around late evening to extremely hazardous levels recorded during celebrations in at least the past three years.

International Consequences

The proliferation of pyrotechnics during the festival also sparked a controversy with bordering Pakistan, with representatives in Pakistan's Punjab partly blaming declining pollution levels in their urban centers on pollutants traveling from neighboring India following the festivities.

Long-Standing Pollution Crisis

The dangerously high concentrations of air contamination in Delhi have remained as a serious challenge for more than 15 years, with the problem showing no improvement.

Near Diwali, the amount of hazardous particulate matter in the environment has been documented to shoot up to significantly exceeding the most severe records ever recorded in China's capital, which was previously considered as the world's most polluted city.

Various Pollution Sources

This crisis in the city is resulting from a convergence of various sources including automobile exhaust, airborne particles, building projects, garbage fires and pollutants from agricultural fires in nearby states of neighboring agricultural zones.

Throughout these areas, farmers illegally burn crop residue to prepare for next season, generating hazardous smog that remains stagnant over the city as cooler air arrives.

Medical and Economic Toll

The economic and health toll on the nearly 33 million inhabitants living in the capital region is significant, according to various studies.

These hazardous conditions results in high levels of neurological, cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, and can result in oncological diseases.

Air quality crisis is calculated to be accounting for approximately 10k untimely deaths each year in the city.