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On Tuesday morning inhabitants of this heavily contaminated metropolis encountered inhaling extremely polluted air that registered in the "critical" level.

Record-Breaking Pollution Readings

Various sections of Delhi recorded an air quality index exceeding 500, which represents a tenfold increase over the safe level set by the global health authority.

Certain monitoring stations, concentrations of dangerous airborne particles hit highs of 1800, representing 15-20x higher than acceptable limits.

Fireworks Restrictions and Current Changes

For the past four years, officials had implemented a comprehensive restriction on the distribution and bursting of firecrackers during celebrations due to their major role to the deadly smog that engulfs the metropolis as winter sets in.

However recently, the recently formed local government petitioned the highest court to propose a modification of the prohibition.

They proposed allowing "environmentally conscious pyrotechnics" – previously doubted by conservation groups as being only roughly 30 percent lower impact – as a compromise between "tradition and public health".

Court Ruling and Enforcement

Despite concerns of environmental and health campaigners, judges approved the appeal, stipulating that environmentally conscious fireworks could be set off during specific hours throughout the Diwali.

On Monday night, there was widespread violation of the designated hours across the metropolis, with little monitoring regarding whether the fireworks being used were actually the more environmentally friendly type.

Many monitoring devices throughout the city registered air quality spiking around the night hours to the most severe measurements seen during celebrations in at least three years.

International Implications

The proliferation of fireworks during Diwali also initiated a blame game with adjacent the neighboring country, with authorities in Pakistan's Punjab partially attributing declining pollution levels in the city of Lahore on hazardous particles coming from neighboring India following the celebrations.

Persistent Environmental Problem

Alarmingly severe readings of pollution in the city have persisted as a major problem for more than 15 years, with the situation continuing to worsen.

Around the festival period, the levels of hazardous airborne contaminants in the environment has been documented to spike to seventy percent above the peak readings ever recorded in China's capital, which was formerly considered as the globally most contaminated city.

Various Pollution Contributors

The problem in the capital is attributed to a convergence of different contributors including automobile exhaust, dust, building projects, waste incineration and haze from farm burning in adjacent areas of farming communities.

Within these states, farmers illegally set their fields on fire to expedite field preparation, producing hazardous haze that then gets trapped over the metropolitan area as winter air sets in.

Health and Economic Consequences

Both financial and medical consequences on the approximately 33 million inhabitants living in the Delhi area is enormous, according to multiple studies.

This pollution leads to increased incidence of nervous system, cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, and can result in cancer.

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