Green crackers, grey skies: India’s winter of suffocation returns

Every winter, north India struggles to breathe as a thick blanket of pollution engulfs the sky. Our eyes water, the wheezing hits you like a ton of bricks while the air tastes and smells like you’re smoking hundreds of packs of cigarettes.

Every government - from the centre to the states - has utterly failed citizens on this most basic need, the right to breathe. And now in an inexplicable move, India’s Supreme Court has allowed the bursting of “green crackers” from October 18-21 during Diwali, from 6am to 8am and 8pm to 10pm. This is at a time when pollution levels have already started creeping up, forcing authorities to invoke the first stage of anti-pollution measures only days ago. Yes, crackers are not the only reason for north India’s air emergency, but year after year they contribute significantly to making it worse. The court’s reasoning - concerns for the industry and smuggling - make no sense. Are we supposed to choke for the sake of the firecracker industry? If smuggling is happening, it shows how the authorities have failed. Why should the rest of us suffer?