Indian capital chokes with pollution after Diwali fireworks

Toxic air in parts of India’s capital New Delhi soared to more than 58 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily limit Monday, after fireworks for the Hindu festival of Diwali, air monitor data showed.

Millions celebrate the annual festival of lights with fireworks in one of the world’s most polluted capitals, worsening winter smog fuelled by vehicle emissions, farm fires and industry.

The Supreme Court this month allowed the limited use of so-called “green” firecrackers, designed to produce fewer emissions, during Diwali.

But restrictions are routinely flouted, with the city reverberating with explosions.

On early Monday morning, around eight hours after the peak of the bursting fireworks, levels of cancer-causing PM 2.5 microparticles hit 879 micrograms per cubic metre in the Mandir Marg locality, according to monitoring organisation IQAir, which cited data from a city government station.

That is nearly 59 times the WHO’s recommended daily maximum.

Authorities have in recent weeks implemented restrictions on traffic and construction as they seek to curb smog in New Delhi, home to more than 30 million people.

Vehicles account for 23% of Delhi’s winter pollution, while biomass burning, including farm stubble fires, contributes 20%, according to India’s environment ministry.

Industry, including coal-fired power plants, contributes about nine percent.

The largest share, 27%, comes from secondary particles, formed when gases released by vehicles, industry, power plants and biomass burning react in the atmosphere.

A 2024 study published in The Lancet Planetary Health, a peer-reviewed research journal, estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.

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