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Tuesday brought citizens of the world's most polluted city encountered breathing extremely polluted air that was classified as the "critical" category.

Record-Breaking Air Quality Measurements

Multiple areas of Delhi recorded an air quality index exceeding 500, which translates to a tenfold increase over the healthy threshold set by the WHO.

Particular areas, levels of PM2.5 and PM10 hit highs of 1,800, amounting to 15 to 20 times above healthy standards.

Pyrotechnics Ban and Current Developments

For the past four years, the government had enforced a comprehensive restriction on the distribution and bursting of pyrotechnics during the Festival of Lights due to their significant contribution to the dangerous haze that blankets the capital as winter approaches.

However recently, the newly elected local government petitioned the supreme court to propose a modification of the restrictions.

The suggestion was allowing "green crackers" – previously criticized by environmentalists as being only roughly 30 percent lower impact – as a middle ground between "heritage and environment".

Court Decision and Implementation

Despite concerns of public health and environmental advocates, judges approved the request, specifying that green firecrackers could be ignited during specific periods throughout the festival.

Throughout the festival evening, there was extensive flouting of the regulated periods across the city, with little regulation regarding whether the pyrotechnics being used were actually the eco-friendly type.

Numerous air quality sensors throughout the city showed air quality peaking around midnight to extremely hazardous measurements seen during Diwali in at least three years.

International Implications

The widespread use of fireworks during Diwali also sparked a blame game with neighbouring Pakistan, with officials in Pakistan's the Punjab region partly blaming worsening pollution levels in the city of Lahore on hazardous particles traveling from neighboring India following the events.

Long-Standing Environmental Crisis

Alarmingly severe concentrations of pollution in Delhi have remained as a major issue for over a decade and a half, with the condition showing no improvement.

Near Diwali, the levels of dangerous particulate matter in the atmosphere has been documented to shoot up to seventy percent above the worst levels ever measured in Beijing, which was once viewed as the planet's dirtiest metropolis.

Multiple Contamination Factors

This crisis in the capital is caused by a convergence of multiple factors including automobile exhaust, dust, building projects, rubbish burning and smoke from crop residue ignition in nearby areas of farming communities.

Within these states, agricultural workers regularly set their fields on fire to expedite field preparation, creating dangerous pollution that becomes contained over the metropolitan area as winter air arrives.

Health and Economic Impact

Public health and economic toll on the nearly 33 million residents calling home the capital region is enormous, according to multiple research.

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

Environmental contamination is calculated to be accounting for 10,000 early fatalities per year in Delhi.