--- title: Pollution in New Delhi Reaches Peak Levels After Diwali description: Pollution in Delhi reached severe levels after the city's celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali this weekend canonical: https://time.com/4551081/delhi-diwali-air-pulltion-india-smog/ author: Tekendra Parmar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-31T07:19:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:30:48.378Z article:section: World og:title: New Delhi's Air Pollution Peaks After Diwali og:description: An evil looking smog greeted Monday morning commuters og:url: https://time.com/4551081/delhi-diwali-air-pulltion-india-smog/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6743956123d63c76/6988ac28cf40a882aac455d0/gettyimages-619425380.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: INDIA-ENVIRONMENT-POLLUTION og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Delhi's Air Pollution Peaks After Diwali twitter:description: An evil looking smog greeted Monday morning commuters twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6743956123d63c76/6988ac28cf40a882aac455d0/gettyimages-619425380.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Pollution in India's Capital New Delhi Reaches Peak Levels After Diwali Weekend by [Tekendra Parmar](/author/tekendra-parmar/) ## Tekendra Parmar Oct 31, 2016 7:19 AM CUT  An Indian worker sweeps a street as smog envelops a street in New Delhi on Oct. 31, 2016, the day after the Diwali festival An Indian worker sweeps a street as smog envelops a street in New Delhi on Oct. 31, 2016, the day after the Diwali festivalMoney Sharma—AFP/Getty Images by [Tekendra Parmar](/author/tekendra-parmar/) ## Tekendra Parmar Oct 31, 2016 7:19 AM CUT Residents of New Delhi paid a high pollution cost Monday after the city’s [Diwali](http://time.com/4547034/diwali-2016/ "undefined") celebrations over the weekend. According to the _Hindustan Times_, [the city’s air-pollution index reached a high 447](http://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi/pollution-level-alarming-in-delhi-after-diwali-people-complain-of-zero-visibility/story-RZ1BwP2dIWIUSF6eLMUDoO.html "undefined") (anything over 401 is classified as “severe”) on Sunday morning local time and reached the maximum level of 500 in many parts of the Indian capital by evening. In anticipation of the festival’s impact on air quality, the Delhi government said it [would place air-purification devices ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/29/choking-delhi-to-install-air-purifiers-at-intersections-for-diwali?CMP=Share%5FAndroidApp%5FTweet "undefined")around the city’s major intersections before the weekend. However, the _Times_ also reported that for many people the air smelled liked “charred firecrackers,” making it difficult to breathe. The pollution was captured by Monday morning commuters who shared on social media the images of roads clouded by smog causing severe visibility problems on their drive to work. Zero visibility at Sarai Kale Khan [#Delhi](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Delhi?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") [#smog](https://twitter.com/hashtag/smog?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") [pic.twitter.com/jP9gWOSur0](https://t.co/jP9gWOSur0 "undefined") — Tarun Kumar (@TK\_Scribbler) [October 31, 2016](https://twitter.com/TK%5FScribbler/status/792913900710744064?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") Not so [#HappyDiwali](https://twitter.com/hashtag/HappyDiwali?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") for our lungs.[#Delhi](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Delhi?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") [#smog](https://twitter.com/hashtag/smog?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") [#visibility](https://twitter.com/hashtag/visibility?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") [#AirQuality](https://twitter.com/hashtag/AirQuality?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") [pic.twitter.com/4wqcHa0TOf](https://t.co/4wqcHa0TOf "undefined") — Upmanyu (@upmanyutrivedi) [October 31, 2016](https://twitter.com/upmanyutrivedi/status/792960465844379648?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") Although traditionally Diwali is celebrated by the lighting of thousands of oil lanterns across the country, fireworks began to [dominate the festivities](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/15/fireworks-bonfire-night-diwali-pollution "undefined") by 1940 when India opened its first fireworks factory. Stagnant wind speeds, low temperatures and high levels of moisture in the air have caused the Indian government’s weather forecasters to warn of higher levels of pollution this year. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4551081/delhi-diwali-air-pulltion-india-smog/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4551081/delhi-diwali-air-pulltion-india-smog/"},"headline":"Pollution in India's Capital New Delhi Reaches Peak Levels After Diwali Weekend","datePublished":"2016-10-31T07:19:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:30:48.378Z","description":"An evil looking smog greeted Monday morning commuters","url":"https://time.com/4551081/delhi-diwali-air-pulltion-india-smog/","keywords":["Environment","India","Pollution","fireworks","Smog","Air Pollution","Delhi"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6743956123d63c76/6988ac28cf40a882aac455d0/gettyimages-619425380.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tekendra Parmar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tekendra-parmar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6743956123d63c76/6988ac28cf40a882aac455d0/gettyimages-619425380.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"INDIA-ENVIRONMENT-POLLUTION","caption":"INDIA-ENVIRONMENT-POLLUTION","creditText":"Money Sharma—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4551081/delhi-diwali-air-pulltion-india-smog/","name":"Pollution in India's Capital New Delhi Reaches Peak Levels After Diwali Weekend"}}]}] ```