The choke is on Delhi as fireworks ban defied

The skies rumbled deafeningly, a noxious shroud wrapped itself around the city, and a putrid smell laced the air - Delhi's residents on Diwali tore to shreds a ban on the use of firecrackers, aided ably by the complete lack of intervention by enforcement authorities, ruining a day that began with unusually blue skies and hurling the city into yet another pollution crisis.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

This time, the city sounded the death knell for itself. Not farm fires, not adverse weather conditions, not vehicular emissions. This time, Delhi had nobody, and nothing, to blame but itself.

The city's unfettered use of fireworks also wiped out a major AIR WE advantage it has never BREATHE had in the run-up to Diwali: the city breathed its best Diwali day air in eight years, with an air quality index (AQI) of 218 (poor).

Instead, the smoke from firecrackers on Sunday pushed up PM2.5 (an ultrafine pollutant) levels manyfold, handing the city its biggest-ever pollution spike on Diwali day.

By 4pm on Monday, the AQI (a 24-hour average reading) worsened to 358 (very poor), worsening into the severe zone at 10pm, with a reading of 403.

Sample this: Delhi's PM2.5 concentration at 4pm on Sunday was 45.6µg/m³, below India's safe standard of 60µg/m³. However, smoke from firecrackers  propelled this value to 550.8µg/ m³ at midnight, nearly 10 times above the safe limit.

Delhi has seen its AQI worsen after Diwali every year (except 2022) since the index was introduced in 2016.

Last year, the AQI actually improved from 312 on Diwali day (October 24) to 303 the day after that due to a fortunate spell of rain. In 2021, the AQI spiked from 382 on Diwali day (November 4) to 462 (severe) the day after that. In 2020, it went from 414 on Diwali to 435.

At play this year was a combination of impunity and lax enforcement-residents turned a blind eye to the Delhi government's ban on crackers (enforced in line with a Supreme Court order), while the Delhi Police turned a blind eye to those violations.

In fact, Delhi Police did not register any cases of violations in five districts - Rohini, Northwest, Outer, Outer North and New Delhi, even as residents swarmed the streets, bursting firecrackers of all varieties and dragging a pall of smog over the Capital.