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Tuesday brought inhabitants of the world's most polluted city were faced with exposed to severely hazardous air that fell into the "alarming" range.

Record-Breaking Air Quality Levels

Multiple areas of Delhi registered an pollution measurement above 500, which translates to a tenfold increase over the safe level set by the WHO.

Certain monitoring stations, concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 reached peaks of 1,800, amounting to 15 to 20 times above acceptable standards.

Firecracker Prohibition and New Developments

For the past four years, authorities had implemented a complete ban on the sale and use of firecrackers during celebrations due to their major role to the hazardous pollution that covers the capital as the cold season sets in.

Nevertheless in recent months, the recently formed regional government approached the supreme court to propose a relaxation of the ban.

The suggestion was allowing "eco-friendly fireworks" – historically questioned by conservation groups as being only approximately one-third reduced emissions – as a compromise between "heritage and public health".

Court Decision and Reality

To the disappointment of environmental and health campaigners, the court agreed to the appeal, stipulating that environmentally conscious fireworks could be ignited during limited periods throughout the celebrations.

Throughout the festival evening, there was considerable violation of the designated hours across the metropolis, with insufficient regulation regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the eco-friendly type.

Many monitoring devices throughout the capital recorded air quality reaching highest levels around late evening to some of the worst levels seen during the festival in at least the past three years.

Cross-Border Implications

The widespread use of fireworks during the festival also triggered a controversy with neighbouring Pakistan, with officials in Pakistan's the Punjab region partially attributing deteriorating atmospheric conditions in the city of Lahore on pollutants originating in India following the celebrations.

Long-Standing Environmental Problem

Extremely elevated readings of air contamination in the capital have remained as a major challenge for over a decade and a half, with the problem showing no improvement.

Around celebratory seasons, the concentration of hazardous particles in the air has been observed to spike to 70% higher the most severe readings ever measured in the Chinese city, which was previously considered as the world's most polluted urban center.

Diverse Contamination Sources

The situation in the capital is attributed to a mix of multiple factors including transportation pollution, dust, development work, garbage fires and smoke from crop residue ignition in nearby states of farming communities.

In these regions, rural residents routinely ignite agricultural waste to clear them quickly, creating dangerous smog that then gets trapped over the metropolitan area as colder air sets in.

Health and Economic Impact

The economic and health impact on the roughly thirty-three million people calling home the metropolitan zone is enormous, according to multiple research.

The contaminated air causes elevated rates of nervous system, heart and circulatory and lung conditions, and can even lead to oncological diseases.

The pollution is calculated to be causing 10,000 untimely fatalities annually in the capital.