The Supreme Court order allowing the sale of green firecrackers, which are thought to be 30 per cent less polluting, in avowedly restricted hours after a ban had been in place for five years opened a Pandora’s Box
Diwali fireworks and firecrackers choked Delhi and the NCR with air quality monitoring stations seeing the index hit the red zone. This blows away all arguments over standard causes of Delhi-NCR pollution like traffic, power plants, heavy industries, construction-demolition dust and the seasonal stubble-burning in Punjab contributing most to making the air barely breathable for all citizens.
The average AQI readings for Delhi on October 17, 206, October 18, 214, October 19 236 and October 21 345 clearly tell the tale of firecrackers being principally responsible for the sudden spike. Firecrackers are the biggest polluters, and a way must be found to reduce them as the major medium of celebrating the national festival of Diwali, which is a festival of lights rather than sound.
The Supreme Court order allowing the sale of green firecrackers, which are thought to be 30 per cent less polluting, in avowedly restricted hours after a ban had been in place for five years opened a Pandora’s Box. The regulation was not only unenforceable, but it also unbolted the door for the non-green varieties to slip in with fake labels.
Everyone should be able to enjoy the festivities that are also marked by so many other ways of celebrating — conducting pujas, lighting diyas or lamps, partaking of sweets and savouries, and wearing new clothes — besides setting off fireworks. Bans are not a panacea because they are never easily enforceable, but the ban on firecrackers around Delhi may have helped somewhat, at least in teaching a lesson to those celebrating colourfully and loudly with fireworks that the whole NCR population does not have to face a seasonal pollution rise though some of it is inevitable in winter.
It may take years for emerging generations to be taught how air pollution shortens lifespans or even kills vulnerable people. Situated in landlocked plains, the NCR does not have the privilege of the sea breeze dispersing the polluted air like metropolises on the coast. The toxic air of winter over the national capital New Delhi, laced with the smoke of fireworks, only gets worse around Diwali. Light less firecrackers and learn to enjoy the festival in less harmful ways is the lesson.
