Public fireworks make more sense

Chennai was smothered in a cloud of toxic fumes this Deepavali. The weather on the important festival day of Wednesday did not help either. There was no rain although it was cloudy and the humid conditions further inhibited the sea breeze.

The cloud of pollution stayed put rather than dissipating thanks to our wonderful friend, the sea breeze taking the day off too. How inestimable the contribution of the unpaid worker is becomes apparent only when he is absent. If not for the help of our natural ally on an everyday basis, the pollution levels would be nearer the scary scenario of health studies from around the world that is causing an alarming ripple about living in India.

The Deepavali toxic cloud was a temporary phenomenon that disappeared quickly from Chennai, but its air or normal days is nothing to be ecstatic about. I was present last weekend at two club events celebrating the festival with a public display of fireworks, the controlled show bringing about a spectacular effect high in the sky. The events would have added much less to the low Deepavali smog that threw air schedules out of kilter and slowed down the running of trains, express and suburban on the festival evening. The public display of fireworks made a lot more sense as hundreds of members and their guests at the Boat Club and the Alumni Club enjoyed the evening without getting their hands full of chemical substances and their lungs full of toxins.

The point is it’s still possible to celebrate Deepavali with firecrackers and fireworks sensibly and without satisfying an individual or family need to show that their closed fraternity is having a good time. Enjoyment does not necessarily come with counting how many thousandwallahs can be let off on the street or trying to break the decibel level record with firecrackers. It was said that the sales of Sivakasi and Chinese products were less this year, despite which the polution levels were unprecedented in Chennai this festive season. Bans may come from misplaced zeal to control everyone with a judicial fiat, but it's still possible to be more sensible about the celebration of the festival of lights.

We used to say that if you have to go to Delhi “Don’t drink the water, don’t breathe the air”.  The capital seemed to have fared just a shade better than Chennai or Mumbai because the Supreme Court’s ban on sale of firecrackers, whether justified or seemingly as silly as Don Quixote tilting at windmills, may have led to some introspection on the part of the people. The improvement in air quality seen within a few days of the festival is, however, illusory. Delhi’s air, worse than Beijing's is so bad that visitors may even experience a bit of bleeding in the nose if they spend some time outdoors. So a little cracker ban is unlikely to have done anything in the long run to make the Delhi air more breathable.

In India and China, air pollution is a growing public health concern. A report by Greenpeace said, “This may be especially true for India, which reportedly surpassed China earlier this year in the overall amount of fine particulate matter pollution its citizens are exposed to”. The report found that fine particulate matter levels in New Delhi came to about 128 micrograms per cubic meter, in comparison to Beijing’s 81 and Washington D.C.’s 12.  “In contrast, the WHO recommends that nations shoot for an annual average of 10 micrograms per cubic meter.” Well, suffice it to say that the battle was lost long ago. This goes to show that Chennai cannot let its air get any worse than it is now.

Air pollution is an imp-ortant cause of premature death. As already established, it is not Deepavali alone that is causing it. The festival comes only once in a year and its deleterious effect on the environment stays on for a couple of days. What we are doing the rest of the time is what is significant and it fouls the air that we breathe — automobile fumes which are uncontrolled in India despite the basic car fuel being of a higher standard these days, inefficient public transportation run on diesel, industrial and building construction dust, cooking on firewood (phased out in urban areas but still prevalent in the Gangetic plain), and indiscriminate burning of crop waste.

Try telling the autorickshaw or the two-wheeler rider who is leaving behind a trail of dense black smoke that he is damaging the environment and fouling the very air he also breathes! These are battles we have lost already, which is a pity. It takes collective will to help the air stay cleaner and we know from experience in India that it is next to impossible to tell anyone to follow rules and regulations even if they are for the public good. This basic resistance to law and rules is what makes India unique. Unless this phenomenon is tackled, we are condemned to breathe air and drink the water and trust that they won’t rob us of too much of our life expectancy.