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Tuesday brought residents of the planet's dirtiest urban center encountered inhaling extremely polluted air that fell into the "alarming" category.

Extremely High Air Quality Readings

Multiple areas of Delhi showed an AQI over 500, which represents ten times the recommended limit recommended by the World Health Organization.

Certain monitoring stations, levels of toxic particulate matter reached peaks of 1800, amounting to fifteen to twenty times above healthy limits.

Pyrotechnics Prohibition and Recent Developments

For the past four years, the government had enforced a comprehensive restriction on the distribution and bursting of firecrackers during celebrations due to their major role to the dangerous pollution that blankets the capital as the cold season approaches.

Yet recently, the newly elected city leadership petitioned the highest court to request a easing of the ban.

The suggestion was allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – which have been doubted by environmentalists as being only approximately one-third lower impact – as a middle ground between "tradition and environment".

Legal Ruling and Reality

Much to the frustration of environmental and health advocates, judges approved the request, specifying that green firecrackers could be used during designated periods throughout the celebrations.

On Monday night, there was widespread violation of the designated hours across the metropolis, with minimal regulation regarding whether the firecrackers being used were actually the supposedly greener version.

Many recording stations throughout Delhi registered contamination reaching highest levels around late evening to the most severe measurements seen during celebrations in at least recent memory.

Regional Implications

The widespread use of fireworks during the festival also sparked a blame game with adjacent the neighboring country, with authorities in Pakistan's Punjab province partially attributing declining pollution levels in Lahore on contaminants traveling from across the border following the celebrations.

Long-Standing Environmental Issue

Alarmingly severe levels of air contamination in the capital have remained as a significant issue for more than 15 years, with the situation continuing to worsen.

During celebratory seasons, the levels of hazardous airborne contaminants in the atmosphere has been documented to shoot up to significantly exceeding the most severe readings ever recorded in the Chinese city, which was once viewed as the globally most contaminated metropolis.

Multiple Contamination Sources

This crisis in the city is resulting from a convergence of various sources including transportation pollution, dust, construction activities, rubbish burning and haze from crop residue ignition in neighbouring states of farming communities.

In these regions, farmers routinely set their fields on fire to expedite field preparation, producing toxic pollution that remains stagnant over the city as colder air sets in.

Health and Economic Impact

Both financial and medical impact on the approximately 33 million inhabitants calling home the metropolitan zone is substantial, according to various studies.

The contaminated air results in elevated rates of neurological, heart and circulatory and lung conditions, and can result in malignancies.

Air quality crisis is projected to be responsible for ten thousand premature fatalities annually in the capital.