India, Nov. 9 -- Firecracker bursting on Diwali night led to a sharp rise in pollution in Mumbai, with nine of the city's 25 air quality monitoring stations recording poor air quality on Monday morning. Thick haze enveloped the city after pollution levels surged overnight, marking one of Mumbai's worst air quality spells of the season.

Kherwadi recorded the highest AQI among the city's monitoring stations at 264 at 7am.

Mumbai's overall Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 171 on Monday morning, placing it in the moderate category. However, the citywide average masked considerably worse conditions at several locations. The AQI was also significantly higher than the 24-hour average of 132 recorded on Sunday evening.

According to the Central...