Residents light fireworks on the occasion of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in New Delhi, India. Photo / Getty Images
Residents light fireworks on the occasion of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in New Delhi, India. Photo / Getty Images
Toxic air in India’s capital has hit more than 56 times the UN health limit, after fireworks for the Hindu festival of Diwali worsened air pollution.
This month, the Supreme Court relaxed a ban on fireworks during the festival of lights, allowing the use of less-polluting “green firecrackers” – designedto emit fewer particulates.
The ban was widely ignored in past years, however, and environmental groups have expressed doubts about the efficacy of the supposedly greener explosives.
Early on Tuesday morning (local time), just after the peak of the bursting fireworks, levels of cancer-causing PM 2.5 microparticles hit 846 micrograms per cubic metre in parts of New Delhi, according to monitoring organisation IQAir.
That is more than 56 times the World Health Organisation’s recommended daily maximum.
A commuter with his face covered in cloth rides along a bridge across river Yamuna in New Delhi on October 21, 2025, as smog engulfed the city skyline a day after Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Photo / Arun Sankar, AFP
By Tuesday morning, PM2.5 concentrations had eased to around 320 micrograms per cubic metre – roughly 23 times WHO limits, but relatively typical for New Delhi in winter.
The city regularly ranks as among the most polluted capitals.
A study in the Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.
