New Delhi: It is Diwali and Delhi was woken up to its air quality index – a measure of pollution in the city – reading 383, indicating that it is nearing the ‘severe’ category.On November 2, the Supreme Court had described the bursting of firecrackers as “religious practice” and allowed the use of ‘green firecrackers’ for two days, from 6 am to 7 am and 8 pm to 10 pm on November 7 and November 8, in Delhi-NCR.A day ago, Delhi recorded its most polluted Diwali eve in the past 10 years, with reports saying that the AQI hovering at 369 in the ‘very poor’ category.PTI now reports that of the 54 monitoring stations across the city, 24 recorded ‘severe’ air quality, while the remaining stations were in the ‘very poor’ category.Jahangirpuri recorded the highest AQI at 450, followed by R.K. Puram at 448, according to the Sameer app.Delhi is likely to remain in the ‘severe’ category on November 8 and 9, the PTI report notes.On November 6, an AQI of 382 had prompted authorities to invoke Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan or GRAP, which is a series of restrictive emergency measures to control air pollution in the national capital.On the same day, the Supreme Court flagged vehicular emissions as a major contributor to air pollution in Delhi-NCR. A bench including Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that “no restriction” was going to work.The Wire has reported on a new report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry noting how more than 20 lakh deaths in India were attributable to air pollution in 2023.