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On Tuesday morning inhabitants of the world's most polluted city encountered inhaling severely hazardous air that registered in the "severe" range.

Alarming Pollution Readings

Various sections of the city recorded an pollution measurement exceeding 500, which translates to ten times the healthy level established by the WHO.

Certain monitoring stations, levels of PM2.5 and PM10 reached peaks of eighteen hundred, representing fifteen to twenty times higher than acceptable levels.

Pyrotechnics Prohibition and New Policy Shifts

For the past four years, the government had implemented a complete ban on the sale and use of pyrotechnics during the Festival of Lights due to their major role to the hazardous haze that blankets the city as winter begins.

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

Officials advocated for allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – previously doubted by environmental experts as being only roughly 30 percent less polluting – as a middle ground between "cultural practices and environment".

Judicial Verdict and Implementation

To the disappointment of medical and ecological activists, judges complied with the request, specifying that green firecrackers could be used during specific time windows throughout the celebrations.

On Monday night, there was widespread violation of the time restrictions across the city, with little regulation regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the more environmentally friendly version.

Several monitoring devices throughout Delhi registered contamination spiking around late evening to the most severe levels seen during the festival in at least three years.

International Implications

The widespread use of firecrackers during Diwali also initiated a dispute with bordering the neighboring country, with representatives in Pakistan's Punjab province partly blaming worsening atmospheric conditions in Lahore on hazardous particles originating in neighboring India following the celebrations.

Persistent Environmental Problem

Alarmingly severe concentrations of pollution in the city have continued as a major challenge for fifteen-plus years, with the situation gradually deteriorating.

Around celebratory seasons, the levels of toxic particles in the air has been documented to shoot up to significantly exceeding the worst readings ever documented in the Chinese city, which was formerly considered as the globally most contaminated metropolis.

Diverse Pollution Contributors

The problem in Delhi is attributed to a combination of multiple factors including transportation pollution, dust, building projects, garbage fires and pollutants from agricultural fires in adjacent regions of farming communities.

Throughout these areas, farmers routinely burn crop residue to expedite field preparation, creating dangerous pollution that then gets trapped over the metropolitan area as winter air sets in.

Public Health and Economic Toll

Both financial and medical toll on the nearly 33 million inhabitants calling home the capital region is enormous, according to various research.

The contaminated air results in high levels of neurological, heart and circulatory and lung conditions, and can even lead to oncological diseases.

Environmental contamination is estimated to be causing 10,000 untimely deaths each year in the capital.