FIRECRACKERS have started to dazzle in the legal and administrative corridors ahead of the Diwali festival with the Supreme Court allowing the sale and bursting of green crackers in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) with certain conditions. The conditional relaxation has made it sure that crackers will remain part of the Festival of Lights in Delhi which remains the epicentre of all debates about air quality in the country. Though there has been no scientific or material evidence of firecrackers only contributing to poor air quality in the national capital, a hue and cry is always made on bursting of crackers during the most pious festival of Hindus in the country. The apex court order has brought relief to those people who have been using crackers on Diwali as part of rituals.

 

While environment activists might get livid with the relaxation on bursting crackers, they need to understand the traditional practices and rituals which necessitate the use of firecrackers during Diwali. Then again, none has been able to prove that crackers have been a major source of pollution or a health hazard. The issue needs to be seen from a wider angle by all the stakeholders. Blaming only firecrackers for poor air quality is like missing the woods for the trees. Despite a ban on firecrackers in Delhi and NCR last year, the air quality remained in the poor category for a long time thus clearly establishing that other sources like vehicle emissions and industrial pollution were the main sources behind the deterioration. A study by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has shown that carbon dioxide and methane - - greenhouse gases -- are rising over Delhi and Mumbai over the last few years. Even before the start of Diwali, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi is in the poor category.

 

This finding corroborates the fact that industrial emissions and vehicle pollution have remained the biggest sources of pollution in the country. The IIT study gives evidence to the policymakers to target such areas which contribute largely to deterioration of air quality. They can identify trends and hotspots by satellite monitoring to zero in on high-emission traffic corridors and industrial clusters recording high pollution. Mitigation measures in such hotspots can easily help reduce the impact of these emissions. The problem, thus, lies somewhere else in which firecrackers are used as a whipping object. Using festivals and rituals as soft targets to further one’s beliefs is a totally wrong trend which the society must not accept. Crackers have been part of celebrations for a long time and hardly had an effect on the environment. This is not a clean chit to firecrackers but stating of a fact that hazardous crackers have always been the result of corrupt practices and poor quality monitoring by the concerned authorities.

 

A strict quality check can always ensure firecrackers within the accepted limits and with all safeguards against environment damages. Instead of blaming the entire industry, there is dire need to pick the hidden culprits damaging the reputation of the cracker industry. The Supreme Court has also pointed out a major problem in dealing with the issue of crackers. By allowing the sale and bursting of green crackers for a limited period, the top court has maintained that the relaxation was necessary to curb smuggling of high-emission crackers. This actually sums up the entire issue. The observation exposes the loopholes in the monitoring system right from manufacturing of firecrackers, mechanism of quality testing, and fair transport of consignments. Invariably, the nexus leads to entry of bad quality firecrackers during festivities. The end result is always shaming of a pious festival like Deepawali. Stricter controls, a foolproof mechanism and crackdown on illegal manufacturing units are needed to deal with the problem of crackers, which, again, form a miniscule part of air pollution.