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As Tuesday dawned citizens of this heavily contaminated metropolis encountered inhaling dangerously toxic air that was classified as the "severe" level.

Alarming Air Quality Measurements

Various sections of the city registered an AQI above 500, which equals a tenfold increase over the healthy limit established by the global health authority.

In some locations, concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 reached peaks of 1,800, amounting to 15 to 20 times exceeding healthy limits.

Pyrotechnics Restrictions and New Developments

For the past four years, authorities had enforced a comprehensive restriction on the sale and use of firecrackers during Diwali due to their substantial impact to the dangerous smog that engulfs the metropolis as the cold season approaches.

Yet in recent months, the recently formed local government petitioned the highest court to request a relaxation of the prohibition.

They proposed allowing "eco-friendly fireworks" – which have been doubted by environmental experts as being only approximately one-third less polluting – as a balance between "heritage and public health".

Court Decision and Reality

Despite concerns of environmental and health activists, the court approved the appeal, stipulating that environmentally conscious fireworks could be set off during limited periods throughout the Diwali.

During the celebrations, there was considerable violation of the time restrictions across the metropolis, with little enforcement regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the supposedly greener version.

Many air quality sensors throughout the city showed contamination reaching highest levels around the night hours to the most severe levels recorded during celebrations in at least three years.

International Effects

The widespread use of pyrotechnics during the festival also triggered a blame game with neighbouring Pakistan, with officials in Pakistan's Punjab province partly blaming worsening air quality in the city of Lahore on contaminants traveling from across the border following the celebrations.

Long-Standing Environmental Issue

Alarmingly severe readings of atmospheric toxins in Delhi have persisted as a major challenge for fifteen-plus years, with the situation showing no improvement.

Around the festival period, the amount of dangerous particles in the atmosphere has been found to shoot up to seventy percent above the worst records ever recorded in the Chinese city, which was once viewed as the globally most contaminated metropolis.

Various Contamination Contributors

The situation in the capital is attributed to a convergence of various sources including automobile exhaust, dust, construction activities, garbage fires and haze from farm burning in neighbouring areas of neighboring agricultural zones.

Throughout these areas, farmers routinely burn crop residue to prepare for next season, producing dangerous smog that then gets trapped over the metropolitan area as colder air descends.

Health and Financial Consequences

The economic and health toll on the nearly 33 million residents residing in the metropolitan zone is significant, according to numerous research.

The contaminated air results in high levels of neurological, heart and circulatory and lung diseases, and can result in oncological diseases.

Air quality crisis is calculated to be accounting for ten thousand early deaths per year in Delhi.