Punjabs air quality deteriorated sharply after Diwali, with official records placing the states overall Air Quality Index (AQI) near the very poor category, while some private monitoring platforms reported severe to very severe pollution levels in several cities amid firecracker emissions and a fresh spike in farm fires. The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) recorded an average AQI of 287 on Monday, while the states farm-fire tally crossed 4,657, with more than 1,350 incidents reported over the past 48 hours.