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Tuesday brought residents of the world's most polluted city found themselves breathing severely hazardous air that was classified as the "alarming" range.

Extremely High Air Quality Levels

Several parts of the city showed an pollution measurement above 500, which represents 10x the safe level recommended by the World Health Organization.

Certain monitoring stations, readings of dangerous airborne particles soared to of eighteen hundred, amounting to 15 to 20 times higher than healthy limits.

Pyrotechnics Ban and Current Developments

For the past four years, officials had enforced a comprehensive restriction on the sale and use of fireworks during Diwali due to their significant contribution to the deadly pollution that blankets the city as winter begins.

However in recent months, the newly elected regional leadership approached the highest court to seek a relaxation of the restrictions.

They proposed allowing "green crackers" – previously questioned by environmental experts as being only approximately one-third lower impact – as a middle ground between "tradition and ecological concerns".

Court Verdict and Enforcement

To the disappointment of medical and ecological campaigners, the court complied with the appeal, stipulating that green firecrackers could be used during specific periods throughout the festival.

Throughout the festival evening, there was extensive disregard of the time restrictions across the city, with minimal enforcement regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the more environmentally friendly variety.

Numerous air quality sensors throughout the capital recorded pollution peaking around late evening to the most severe levels observed during the festival in at least recent memory.

Regional Consequences

The widespread use of firecrackers during the festival also initiated a dispute with bordering the neighboring country, with representatives in Pakistan's Punjab province partly blaming declining pollution levels in the city of Lahore on pollutants traveling from India following the celebrations.

Persistent Pollution Crisis

Alarmingly severe concentrations of atmospheric toxins in Delhi have continued as a serious problem for over a decade and a half, with the condition continuing to worsen.

Around the festival period, the amount of hazardous particles in the atmosphere has been documented to shoot up to seventy percent above the peak readings ever documented in China's capital, which was formerly considered as the world's most polluted metropolis.

Various Pollution Factors

This crisis in the capital is caused by a convergence of multiple factors including heavy vehicle emissions, dust, development work, garbage fires and smoke from agricultural fires in nearby areas of Punjab and Haryana.

In these regions, rural residents regularly ignite agricultural waste to prepare for next season, generating toxic smog that then gets trapped over the metropolitan area as colder air sets in.

Health and Economic Toll

Public health and economic impact on the approximately 33 million inhabitants calling home the Delhi area is substantial, according to multiple research.

These hazardous conditions leads to increased incidence of neurological, cardiovascular and lung diseases, and can potentially cause cancer.

Air quality crisis is estimated to be accounting for ten thousand untimely deaths each year in the city.