Why do we all celebrate deepavali? When lord Ram came back home after a 14 years of vanavaas People there used all the means of lighting that they could to celebrate it Era changed, People changed and the means of lighting also changed Today there is one addition to these ways of lighting that is called firecrackers For a long time now celebrities and politicians urge people to not burst crackers in days of deepavali Saying it creates pollution and harms the environment The defending people argue that these people are hypocritical You guys just point out one festival That you are attacking our festivals In these debates and discussions the focal point is missed the focal point is pollution problem in India So keeping this focal point in the centre lets discuss what are the aspects of banning firecrackers
Pollution problem
If you start with the pollution point then you will definitely agree that India is one of the most polluted countries See the environmental performance index It has 180 countries India’s rank is 162nd Out of the 30 most polluted cities in the world 22 are in India India’s capital is the world’s most polluted capital And is one of the 10 ten most polluted cities Other than the capital Delhi Kanpur, Gaziabad, Noida, Meerut, Faridabad, Bhiwadi, Gurgaon, Rohtak, Muzaffarnagar, you will find many cities where particulate matter that is PM 2.5 Which is 5 times the standard that WHO says is acceptable which means the problem of pollution in India is very serious But to do a serious discussion on this we need to see all the aspects of it Since this discussion has begun with Diwali lets address this Diwali and firecrackers at the beginning it’s not a new thing to light firecrackers in diwali
Diwali and pollution
In whole world if you observe may it be Games, New year, Christmas, birthday or wedding Everywhere firecrackers are used as practise It is considered a symbol of celebration Same is in Diwali Burning firecrackers gives out two things Bright and beautiful light And second is smoke, This smoke has many pollutants including PM 2.5 which is very dangerous When you burn firecrackers in large numbers in some area obviously you will see an uptake in the pollution Which sustains a small period It has been proven by many case studies in Delhi, Lucknow Even same was proven in the study of China new year The solution given to prevent this uptake is blanket ban on firecrackers Same thing was said in 2017 supreme court case In 2020 National green tribunal said that you can burn eco friendly firecrackers But when corona virus came even they suggested a blanket ban Similar ban like Delhi is in Punjab, Rajasthan, Orissa, West Bengal Many states have banned firecrackers in some or the other way You should be clearly seeing two things in this discussion till now that India is one of the most polluted countries in the world secondly in India one event comes in entire year which sees an uptake in pollution But if you see whole years pollution debate then you will understand 99% discussions are focused on this one uptake All the bans are for this, also all the court cases News are also focused on this But people hardly notice the other polluting factors that’s why iit kanpur did a comprehensive study to find out the factors that make India most polluted whole year And where this small uptake fits in these factors
Factor contributing pollution and small uptake’s
according to their study this uptake’s contribution can be considered negligible Because they have listed out few major contributing factors Road dust, construction dust, emission from vehicle cars, jeeps, trucks, traffic jams, power plants in large industries, stubble burning in the nearby field in the northern part of India This stubble burning part is very special since stubble burning coincides with Diwali Many times smog is seen till next day of Diwali or even after 1-2 weeks Many people connect this to Diwali But unfortunately its main factor is not Diwali but stubble burning Because the rice cultivation in Punjab and neighbouring states gives out parali as the waste product farmers don’t have the equipment to dispose it of government doesn’t incentivise it So they burn it To solve this parali problem mostly you will see government giving lip service There is no strong step because there is a lot of work to do To stop the Diwali uptake you will see ban And that is the most advertised So the government selects the way in which they have most advertising and least of the work that’s why you see a lot of discussion on one side and nearly none on the other side
Solution
In our country major discussion is on this short uptake that’s why most solutions are for this uptake
First is green firecrackers These are not green firecrackers which burst loudly Green firecrackers means the pollutants in this are limited to 30% Meaning they cause less pollution Supreme court had given permission in 2019 to mass produce And CSIR had spoken to 230 manufacturers To mass produce But neither was this communicated on industry level nor did the states understand it Many states still talk about blanket ban Also just like other things regular firecrackers are sold using the green fire cracker sticker Giving rise to corruption Supreme court also noticed this and said blanket ban should not be considered in any state It should be banned reasonably which ensures sale of less polluting firecrackers and that don’t impact on industry level But what looks good on paper takes a different shape
Perspective of firecrackers producers
while coming to reality that’s why the firecracker industry is stressed tamil nadu’s sivakasi is considered a big production hub for the firecrackers made in India Here there are around 6.5 lakh families which run their home directly or indirectly from firecracker manufacturing industry It is said that last year they lost 45% market because of various bans Around 30-40% Sivakasi is being shut down Also some manufacturers say that firecrackers will stop being manufactured in Sivakasi after few years 6.5 lakh families employment will end at once They had done 80% procurement in 2018 and it reduced to 60% in 2020 People here also tell their stories saying firecracker ban connected to pandemic is unreasonable and unscientific Since it has no data collection If you ban firecrackers for one day without taking any action on other polluting factors whole year they say it’s a political stunt and a fashion statement from politicians In 2018 we were told to sell green firecrackers and only manufacture them There was no formula taken for it in 2019 And in 2020 there were talks of blanket ban in many states so they don’t know exactly what is going to happen
Conclusion
First is that this blanket ban which comes just 10-15 days before Diwali entire year industry doesn’t know what is going to happen So after procurement, production and retailers buying it Just 10-15 days before Diwali the business is washed out Meaning a major loss This is a policy paralysis situation Secondly whenever a policy is made it has people involved, industry involved, and obviously government is involved The policy is made after their communication Here the bridges and links to communication are not visible One order comes saying that everything is banned and then all the industry, and people are in chaos This should not happen And the last point all the discussions and banning that is used for this small uptake If we even use 10% of it on other factors we would actual see some visible change Otherwise I see everything as a virtue signalling Government and politicians have figured out the way to do least work and most advertising giving most visibility To solve the actual problem you have to plan, make policy and work on ground level Looks like it is difficult And it feels heart breaking personally
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