Air quality plummets as Delhi residents flout firecracker ban

The skies of Delhi were lit as people defied the ban on firecrackers to celebrate Diwali in the national capital.
Firecrackers were busted in several areas including Lajpat Nagar, Kalkaji, Chhatarpur, Jaunapur, East of Kailash, Saket, Rohini, Dwarka, Punjabi Bagh, Vikas Puri, Dilshad Garden, Burari and many other neighbourhoods of east and west Delhi saw firecrackers being burst.
Delhi’s air quality on Thursday evening dipped to “very poor” category, with levels expected to worsen later tonight.
The city’s 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) was recorded at 327 at 9pm.
The air quality in several areas such Alipur, Anand Vihar, Ashok Vihar, Aaya Nagar, Bawana, Burari, Mathura Road, IGI Airport, Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Mundka, Narela, Patparganj, Rohini, Shadipur, Sonia Vihar, Wazirpur, Mandir Marg, Nehru Nagar, Najafgarh was recorded in “very poor” category, data from the National AQI published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed.
Earlier today, Delhiites woke up to a sky shrouded in a thick layer of smog. The air in Anand Vihar, a major terminus, was extremely polluted, with the AQI in the “severe” category.
At 8 am, Anand Vihar’s average AQI (PM10) was recorded at 419, while maximum was 500.
Every year, Delhi’s skies rumble with the sounds of firecrackers that explode across the city with no intervention from enforcement authorities despite far-ranging curbs on their manufacture, sale and use.
This results in a deadly cocktail — emissions from these firecrackers, laden with toxic chemicals like barium, sulphur and lead, dovetail with the already steep levels of local pollutants and smoke from farm fires.
Delhi saw clearer skies and brighter weather on Diwali in 2023, with an AQI of 218, showing improvement from levels in past years—312 in 2022, 382 in 2021 and higher figures before that, according to Central Pollution Control Board data.
The CPCB classifies AQI between 0-50 as “good”, between 51 and 100 as “satisfactory”, between 101 and 200 as “moderate”, between 201 and 300 as “poor”, between 301 and 400 as “very poor”, and over 400 as “severe”.