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As Tuesday dawned residents of the world's most polluted city found themselves inhaling extremely polluted air that fell into the "alarming" level.

Extremely High Pollution Measurements

Multiple areas of the capital registered an AQI over 500, which translates to 10x the healthy threshold set by the global health authority.

Particular areas, concentrations of toxic particulate matter reached peaks of eighteen hundred, representing 15-20x higher than safe limits.

Fireworks Ban and New Changes

For the past four years, the government had implemented a complete ban on the purchase and ignition of fireworks during celebrations due to their substantial impact to the dangerous smog that covers the metropolis as colder weather sets in.

Nevertheless in recent months, the recently formed local government approached the highest court to request a relaxation of the restrictions.

The suggestion was allowing "eco-friendly fireworks" – historically criticized by conservation groups as being only about 30% reduced emissions – as a balance between "heritage and public health".

Legal Ruling and Implementation

Despite concerns of environmental and health campaigners, judicial authorities complied with the proposal, specifying that environmentally conscious fireworks could be set off during specific time windows throughout the celebrations.

During the celebrations, there was widespread violation of the time restrictions across the metropolis, with little regulation regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the eco-friendly variety.

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

Cross-Border Implications

The proliferation of pyrotechnics during Diwali also sparked a blame game with neighbouring the neighboring country, with authorities in Pakistan's the Punjab region pointing to deteriorating air quality in their urban centers on contaminants coming from across the border following the events.

Long-Standing Environmental Problem

Extremely elevated concentrations of air contamination in the city have remained as a serious issue for over a decade and a half, with the problem showing no improvement.

Around the festival period, the levels of dangerous airborne contaminants in the atmosphere has been observed to spike to significantly exceeding the peak records ever documented in Beijing, which was previously considered as the globally most contaminated urban center.

Various Contamination Factors

This crisis in the capital is caused by a combination of various sources including automobile exhaust, construction debris, construction activities, waste incineration and haze from farm burning in nearby states of neighboring agricultural zones.

In these regions, agricultural workers routinely set their fields on fire to clear them quickly, generating hazardous smog that remains stagnant over the capital as colder air sets in.

Health and Economic Toll

Public health and economic toll on the nearly 33 million residents residing in the Delhi area is significant, according to multiple investigations.

The contaminated air causes high levels of neurological, cardiovascular and breathing diseases, and can result in oncological diseases.

Air quality crisis is calculated to be responsible for approximately 10k premature deaths per year in Delhi.