India: After a fireworks ban was widely disregarded for raucous celebrations of the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, India’s capital, New Delhi, was enveloped in poisonous smog on Friday.
Over 30 million people live in New Delhi’s congested streets, which are regularly ranked among the world’s most polluted urban areas.
Each year, factories, traffic fumes, and stubble burning by farmers in neighboring regions to prepare their fields for plowing—all of which contribute to the city’s cancer-causing acrid smog—are to blame.
However, despite the city’s ban on their sale and use a month ago, Friday’s air quality worsened as a result of a thunderous night of fireworks lit as part of the Diwali celebrations.
“Stilted response”: Before Diwali, city police had seized nearly two tons of fireworks, but the crackers could still be bought in neighboring states.
In honor of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi and as a symbol of the triumph of light over darkness, many residents celebrated at home with a meal for the entire family and the lighting of small candles.
Throughout the night, the densely populated city was rocked by the booming crackers and fireworks launched by others.
On October 31, 2024, revelers in New Delhi set off fireworks as part of the festivities to mark Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Due to Hindu devotees’ strong religious attachment to the crackers, Sajjad Hussain/AFP Police frequently hesitate to take action against violators.
Arguments between rival politicians in neighboring states and between central and state-level authorities, according to critics, have exacerbated the issue.
Clean air was declared to be a fundamental human right by India’s Supreme Court last month, directing both the central and state governments to take action.
As the winter pollution returned, an editorial in the Times of India stated, “Delhi’s toxic air is killing us softly with its smog.”
“It is nothing new, but what never ceases to amaze, year after year, is the state’s stilted response,” the author asserts.
“Lack of resolve”: The dangerous microparticles known as PM2.5, which enter the bloodstream through the lungs, reached levels that were more than 23 times the World Health Organization’s daily maximum.
According to monitoring company IQAir, pollutant levels in the sprawling megacity reached 345 micrograms per cubic meter shortly after dawn, making the air “hazardous.”
It ranked New Delhi as the worst city in the world, 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the northwest of smoke-choked Lahore.
After Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, on November 1, 2024, in New Delhi, a cyclist with a mask makes gestures near the India gate in the gloom. Arun Sankar/AFP The New Delhi government has previously attempted to reduce pollution by limiting vehicle traffic, including a program that restricted alternate day travel to cars with odd or even license plates.
Additionally, construction work and the entry of diesel-powered vehicles into the city have been restricted by authorities during certain seasons.
