The Delhi government has opted to move to the Supreme Court requesting it to permit it to use certified green crackers in its Diwali celebrations in the current year. According to the chief minister of Delhi Rekha Gupta, Diwali has a lot of cultural and religious values to millions of people and the government aims at making sure that the people are able to enjoy the festival yet be conscious about the environment.
This is following the directive of the Supreme Court dated September 26 that allowed certified manufacturers to manufacture eco-friendly or green crackers. The court however made clear that such crackers will not be able to be sold and used in the Delhi-NCR region without its express permission either.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) has developed green crackers which are aimed at preventing as much air and noise pollution as possible. They are also produced without using lethal chemicals such as barium, but rather use materials that contain dust suppression and release of water vapor and lower the total emissions.
Even though the supporters state that these environmentally friendly fireworks could reduce emissions by nearly 30 percent, there are environmental experts who do not seem convinced. They say that a slight cut in pollution would not help much in improving poor air quality of Delhi in season of festivals.
Bhargav Krishna, the convener of the Sustainable Futures Collaborative, termed green firecrackers an oxymoron with the view that their effects on the environment are too insignificant to matter. On the same note, Mukesh Khare, an air pollution expert at IIT Delhi cautioned that whatever progress was achieved by using green crackers would be lost as long as people consumed them in high numbers. These are less sulphurous, and less toxic, but as he put it, the scale of their use, particularly in conjunction with conventional crackers, will neutralize the advantageous effects.
Delhi is still debating the responsibility of culture against environmental responsibility, and even as the city tries to secure the approval of the court, it remains a fight between culture and sustainability.
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