Eco-friendly Diwali; ban firecrackers

C.K Subramaniam

(cksumpire@gmail.com)

Diwali is the festival of lights, a 5-day celebration to honour the triumph of good over evil and new beginnings. Diwali falls on Sunday this year, and all five days carry their own special meanings and traditions. Celebrating Diwali means decking your house in lights and colours, spending time with your loved ones, and enjoying delicious food together—all meant to welcome in the Hindu New Year and appreciate light and joy, appreciated by anyone. We celebrate the victory of good over evil in a unique way. Think of this cleaning as a way to purify your environment and make way for the fresh, positive energy of Diwali and the new year. Rangoli is a traditional work of art and decoration done in sand or rice, often depicting beautiful, symmetrical flowers like lotuses and daisies.

Rangoli designs are typically placed just inside the entryway of your home, but feel free to set them up elsewhere, too. You can also paint or draw your Rangoli designs on paper or wood, or even buy them pre-made. People really enjoy and make Diwali day-to-day for celebrations. They fear a rise in pollution levels ahead of the holiday season because of the pandemic. The citizens for clean air and a group of citizens, environmentalists, waste management experts, scientists, medical practitioners, and several RWA volunteers and NGOs all propagate a cracker-free Diwali, as we are already facing the COVID-19 threat and should not add more fear at this hour.

Ban on Crackers is a hot topic for discussion every year during the festival of lights. While firecrackers are not the only factor, last year, Delhi saw alarming levels of air pollution towards the end of the year. In order to curb pollution, the Supreme Court suspended all licences that permitted the sale, wholesale, and retail of firecrackers in Delhi last year, and that was a right step in the right direction. Air pollution causes concern as newborns and senior citizens suffer endless problems, and asthma patients suffer throughout the winter session if pollution is not controlled at this level.

It must be mentioned here that citizens of Delhi have been suffering the impact of dangerously high pollution levels every year post-Diwali up until the spring season. During Diwali night last year, the city’s air pollution levels were 14–16 times beyond the safe limits. Seeing that the condition was not getting better, some schools even suspended classes, visibility was down to 200 mt, environmentalists called it an emergency, and the government received criticism for not being able to help the situation. As a visitor to Delhi, I felt the real problem of pollution immediately after Diwali as I was climbing the staircase of the New Delhi Railway station. I felt breathing became difficult, and fortunately, I had a Rajdhani Train ticket. Once I entered the AC compartment, I felt somewhat relieved and continued my journey.

The court’s decision is well-intentioned but hardly implementable. Given the popularity of bursting firecrackers on Diwali, people will find ways to obtain them. True, air pollution levels had dangerously spiked after Diwali last year, and the Supreme Court imposed a ban on the sale of firecrackers last November. The court has taken down that order now.

Firecrackers, merely for the sake of entertainment, emit nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and particulate matter, which are so minute that they have the ability to get lodged in the lung and can even enter the bloodstream. Patients with asthma and other respiratory disorders report discomfort and worsening of conditions during Diwali.

High amounts of noise pollution created by firecrackers can cause temporary and sometimes permanent hearing impairment. Other problems that people of old age face on Diwali nights are sleeping disorders, restlessness, a rise in blood pressure, and even heart attacks. Lives are lost, and some are maimed for the rest of their lives. Playing with fire, the most hazardous element of nature, cannot be fun for everyone, especially when every nook and corner of the country joins together to emit sulphur and nitrite together the whole night. The day next to Diwali, witnesses burned garbage, which usually contains toxic elements such as magnesium and phosphorus.

Crores are spent every year on these burnt fire crackers, which ultimately go towards contaminating the natural resources, and sometimes properties and lives are lost too due to accidents from these firecrackers. Though the burning of firecrackers has been in the Hindu tradition for years, suddenly implementing a ban on it might hurt their religious sentiments. Fireworks have been an inherent part of the Diwali celebrations, and not just Hindus but people of other religions equally partake in this festival.

Instead of banning the fireworks, there could be reformatory measures to lessen the number of firecrackers that could be burned in a single day. Some areas near hospitals and old-age homes should have firecracker prohibition rules, which should be strictly implemented. Whatever measures are taken every year to lessen noise and air pollution ultimately get hazed in the heavy smoke of these crackers, and unless a complete ban is imposed on them, nothing could be done to make Diwali actually ‘eco-friendly.’

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