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As Tuesday dawned residents of the world's most polluted city encountered exposed to severely hazardous air that was classified as the "critical" category.

Alarming Air Quality Readings

Multiple areas of the city recorded an air quality index above 500, which equals ten times the recommended level set by the WHO.

Certain monitoring stations, levels of dangerous airborne particles reached peaks of eighteen hundred, amounting to 15 to 20 times exceeding safe standards.

Fireworks Restrictions and New Changes

For the past four years, officials had maintained a comprehensive restriction on the distribution and bursting of pyrotechnics during Diwali due to their major role to the dangerous pollution that engulfs the capital as colder weather sets in.

Nevertheless earlier this year, the newly elected city administration appealed to the highest court to seek a easing of the restrictions.

Officials advocated for allowing "eco-friendly fireworks" – which have been questioned by environmental experts as being only approximately one-third reduced emissions – as a middle ground between "cultural practices and public health".

Court Verdict and Enforcement

Despite concerns of public health and environmental advocates, judicial authorities approved the appeal, specifying that environmentally conscious fireworks could be ignited during designated time windows throughout the celebrations.

During the celebrations, there was extensive violation of the designated hours across the city, with little regulation regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the more environmentally friendly version.

Several monitoring devices throughout Delhi registered contamination peaking around the night hours to extremely hazardous levels recorded during the festival in at least recent memory.

Cross-Border Effects

The proliferation of firecrackers during Diwali also sparked a dispute with neighbouring the neighboring country, with officials in Pakistan's Punjab province pointing to declining atmospheric conditions in the city of Lahore on pollutants originating in across the border following the celebrations.

Persistent Environmental Crisis

The dangerously high levels of atmospheric toxins in Delhi have remained as a serious challenge for fifteen-plus years, with the condition gradually deteriorating.

Around Diwali, the levels of hazardous airborne contaminants in the air has been observed to increase dramatically to seventy percent above the most severe levels ever recorded in Beijing, which was once considered as the world's most polluted urban center.

Various Contamination Factors

The situation in Delhi is caused by a combination of multiple factors including heavy vehicle emissions, airborne particles, development work, rubbish burning and haze from agricultural fires in neighbouring states of neighboring agricultural zones.

Within these states, farmers routinely burn crop residue to prepare for next season, generating dangerous pollution that then gets trapped over the city as colder air descends.

Health and Financial Impact

Both financial and medical toll on the nearly 33 million inhabitants residing in the metropolitan zone is enormous, according to multiple studies.

The contaminated air leads to increased incidence of nervous system, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and can even lead to oncological diseases.

Air quality crisis is calculated to be responsible for approximately 10k untimely fatalities annually in Delhi.