Top 10 most-polluted areas in Delhi the day after Diwali: See full list

The overall AQI in Delhi stood at 350 as of 8 am on Tuesday, and several monitoring stations saw recordings in the ‘severe’ category a day after Diwali.

Thick smog and toxic air - an already choking Delhi woke up to an even worse air this morning, just one day after Diwali. The air quality plunged to the 'Very Poor' category on the Air Quality Index, with most monitoring stations in the city recording pollution levels in the ‘red zone’.

The overall AQI in Delhi stood at 350 as of 8 am on Tuesday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.

The overall AQI in Delhi stood at 350 as of 8 am on Tuesday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data.

Here's an area-wise list of top 10 most-polluted places in the national capital on Tuesday morning, in descending order:

Area	AQI	Category
Bawana	427	Severe
Wazirpur	408	Severe
Alipur	408	Severe
Jahangirpuri	407	Severe
Burari Crossing	402	Severe
Shadipur	399	Very Poor
Ashok Vihar	391	Very Poor
Punjabi Bagh	376	Very Poor
Sonia Vihar	374	Very Poor
Vivek Vihar	374	Very Poor

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Apart from the figures mentioned above, air quality also saw a dip in areas like JLN Stadium (AQI 318), ITO (347), Aya Nagar (AQI), Lodhi Road (AQI 327), Anand Vihar (AQI 360), Okhla Phase-2 (AQI 353), North Campus, Delhi University (363) and Dilshad Garden (357), among other areas.

In the days leading up to Diwali, Delhi’s air quality steadily worsened, with AQI levels turning increasingly alarming each day.

Even as Stage 2 of the Graded Action Response Plan (Grap 2) kicked in on Sunday, the city recorded AQI in the ‘severe’ category the next day, on Diwali. The AQI of most of the stations was over 300 while that of Anand Vihar and Wazirpur was 400-plus.

Similar but even more alarming readings were recorded on Tuesday, a day after fireworks lit up the city during Diwali. With the onset of winter, Delhi experiences a sharp surge in toxic air and pollution each year.

Supreme Court nod to green crackers

On October 15, just days before Dhanteras and Diwali, the Supreme Court allowed the sale and use of green firecrackers in the Delhi-NCR region between October 18 to 20.

However, the permission came with certain conditions -- crackers from outside the NCR were prohibited, and their use was restricted to specific time slots: 6–7 pm and 8–10 pm. The top court described this as a “balanced approach” to allow festive celebrations while safeguarding the environment.

On Diwali however, crackers were reportedly burst beyond the windows the top court set, and this likely became one factor in pushing the hourly PM 2.5 levels in parts of the city to around 29 times the permissible standards.