Impact of firecrackers burning and policy-practice gap on air quality in Delhi during Indian's great mythological event of Diwali festival

Delhi is one of the most polluted cities in the world particularly in winter. During the winter season, Indian's great mythological event of Diwali festival is celebrated across the nation. This celebration with firecrackers burning and vehicles emission is responsible for bad air quality in Delhi. Very poor air quality takes place at Diwali night with significant concentration of aerosols, carbon and trace gases. This study emphasized on Diwali firecrackers emissions and associated increasing atmospheric pollutants level. Study also focused on pollution related various policies and policy-practice gaps to mitigate them accordingly for both local and international practice. To do so, pre-lockdown, during lockdown, unlock phases, during and post Diwali festival pollutants data were collected. Man-Kendal and Sen's slope trend analysis was used to estimate the air pollutants variation. The result indicates there are significant increases of atmospheric pollutants, particularly PM10 and PM2.5 with their average Man-Kendal and Sen's slope values are 2.873 and 1.257, and 2.791 and 1.576 respectively. The overall variation of air quality index (AQI) during pre-Diwali and Diwali time was 8.7%. Therefore, this study should help several policy makers and concern authorities to mitigate this phenomenon regarding the proper implementation of pollution management strategies.

Automated summary

This study focused on the impact of firecrackers emissions during Diwali on atmospheric pollution, as well as related policies and policy-practice gaps. Data collection during different stages of pre-Diwali, Diwali, and post-Diwali revealed a significant increase in particulate matter concentration in the air, with an overall increase in the Air Quality Index.