Cracker of an order, but who'll crack whip?

As the festival of lights, Diwali, approaches, the police, the pollution control board and the BBMP have the daunting task of ensuring that only “green” crackers are sold and used this year in accordance with the recent Supreme Court order. With just a couple of weeks to go for the festival, will they be able to crack the whip or create the awareness neccessary to enforce the ban on polluting fireworks? Aksheev Thakur reports

With Diwali being just a couple of weeks away, the Supreme Court has come out with a cracker of an order, ruling that it will have to be a “green” festival of lights this year. The firecrackers, it said, would have to be less noisy and polluting. Although the order was met with cheers from environmentalists,  it has put the state government in a quandary as it has little time to implement it. With less than a fortnight to go for the festival, the civic and regulatory agencies now have a huge task ahead of making sure that no high decibel firecrackers are sneaked into the city.

Like the preceding year, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KPSCB) will monitor the noise level during the festival and come out with a report. Last year, the board said there was less pollution in the city during the festival than in 2016 and this year it hopes it will be even lesser.

While the festival pollution was highest in BTM Layout and Yelahanka last year, the KSPCB said it was within limits on October 18,  Diwali day, but rose over the next two consecutive days as more crackers were burst. Still, the situation overall was better than the previous year, it claimed.

“Last year we coordinated with the BBMP to make sure there was less noise and air pollution in the city. This year designated areas will be set up for bursting of crackers and an awareness campaign started from October 25. We will have a meeting to draw up a plan,” says Dr Lakshmikanth, who is a part of the state awareness committee of the KSPCB.

Although he welcomes the decision of the Supreme Court, Dr Lakshmikanth says had it come a little earlier, the board would have had more time to implement it. “This is a pro-environment order, but it sets us a huge task. We will conduct raids to ensure that high decibel crackers are not sold as the court has allowed the sale of only the green kind. And we hope the people will take care to burst crackers only between 8pm and 10 pm,” he adds.

With the Supreme Court also disallowing the sale of crackers on e-commerce platforms, popular sites like Flipkart and Amazon are not selling any this year. In other measures, the cracker manufacturers have been told to get clearance from the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) that is entrusted with framing rules under the Explosives Act, 1884, before launching their products in the market. 

But this has put a great deal of pressure on the city police. Says one senior police officer, “The new order is challenging, but we will do our best to enforce it with the help of the agencies concerned.  It may, however, be difficult to keep a check on the decibel and smoke levels of the crackers as no seller is likely to reveal whether he has complied with the Supreme Court order or not. Still, it is not impossible and we will do everything to make sure they fall in line.”

Medical fraternity welcomes SC order
The medical fraternity has welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court banning the sale of polluting firecrackers as every year over a 100 cases of eye injuries are reported across the city, leaving some of the patients blind.

Says Dr Sumanth, assistant professor, community medicine, at Mysore Medical College, “We as doctors welcome the decision of the court as the health ramifications are severe. Crackers can lead to deafness and the gases are bad for asthmatic patients. Worse, people could lose their sight. Every year we see many cases of burn injuries and loss of eyesight, which are totally avoidable.”

The sellers are, however, dismayed by the court’s decision. Complains one seller, Raju, who works at a grocery store and gets his stock of crackers just a couple of days ahead of the festival to make some extra money,  “Last year, the sales dipped because of the imposition of GST and rain. And now we have to deal with this. The court should have come out with the decision a little early so that the manufacturers could have made the eco friendly crackers.   The agencies have already banned crackers that have a higher noise level than  125 decibels.”  

Although green activists have welcomed the ban, they are sceptical about its enforcement. Executive director of  Greenpeace, Kshitij Urs, believes that the bursting of firecrackers must be banned in toto. “Unlike carbon dioxide, sulphur is a more potent greenhouse gas. So fireworks must go. But the authorities may be afraid to ban them fully as there is a mob culture in our country and there are people who could give a communal colour to such action,” he rues.

Guest Column: The mindset of people needs to change,says MAHESH KASHYAP 
Indian Institute of Science (IISc.)
While allowing people to burst crackers from 8 pm to 10 pm during Diwali, the Supreme Court in its order on Tuesday put a rider that they could only opt for ‘green crackers’ that are not very noisy and create less pollution. But with the festival being just two weeks away, how will these eco- friendly crackers reach the people when the fire cracker industry has declared that it has already completed its current year’s production?  Also, how are we going to make sure that there is really a “green cracker” in a box painted green?

What we should do is ask ourselves if we really need to burst crackers on the occasion of Diwali. Many of us do not know the significance of the festival and bursting crackers has become a fad and more of a fun thing than a celebration. A better way would be to light lamps before one’s house or apartment as Diwali is the festival of lights. All it needs is for the mindset of the people to change.

When you burst crackers, toxic chemicals remain suspended in the air for a long time, causing serious health problems. Although under the rules, no noisy crackers can be burst after 10 pm, the noise and pollution goes unabated. It is difficult to enforce these rules as it is a huge task to go through every street to check for the pollution and noise and the government agencies don’t have the manpower needed.

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) had reached out to school children directly to explain the effects of pollution during Diwali and to some extent this has worked as a number of children have refused to burst crackers during the festival. This is a welcome start. Children need to be taught the significance of the festival and the effects of pollution and the adults need to cooperate. Together, they can bring down air and noise pollution and celebrate the festival as it should be.