NEW DELHI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - India's capital territory of Delhi is keen to use artificial rain to fight air pollution this year, its Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Tuesday, as deteriorating air quality in the region led to an increase in respiratory illnesses.

The Supreme Court also rapped the Delhi government on Monday and demanded to know how the ban on firecrackers was not fully implemented.

Delhi’s air quality plummeted overnight, reaching alarming levels on Monday morning just few days after Diwali , with areas like Anand Vihar recording an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 433, marking the worst pollution levels of the season so far.

On Monday, Delhi recorded an AQI of 373, with many stations recording the AQI over 400, which is the ‘severe’ category.

Delhi's air quality was on the brink of the 'severe' category on Sunday with an overall AQI reading of 382 – the worst recorded in the country for the day. Fifteen monitoring stations of the city recorded air quality levels in the 'severe' zone,

Delhi's air quality plunged into alarming depths early Sunday morning, as the Air Quality Index (AQI) breached the hazardous 500 threshold just days after Diwali, reaching a severe AQI reading of 507 at 7 am.