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?

In any case, the term “green crackers” is an oxymoron. Experts say they emit around 30 percent less pollutants than regular crackers but even then they cause major harm. They point out that the sheer volume of bursting “green” crackers can cause emissions to go up and be even worse than before. In other words, low wind speeds, cooler temperatures combined with a huge number of “green crackers” will probably make this post Diwali even smoggier than ever before.

And then there is the big question - how exactly will this order be implemented? Is the cracker police going to go around checking if those bursting crackers are using “environment-friendly” ones? Over the years, a Supreme Court ban on firecrackers has not worked well on the ground. Showing contempt of the court and of their own health, many people flouted the ban and burst regular crackers anyway. No one cared, no one was hauled up. Now the court has effectively lifted even that veil.

As we head into another smog-filled winter, what is clear is the failure to address air pollution as a national health emergency with long-term measures that act not just against firecrackers but open waste burning, vehicular pollution, construction and more sources of toxic air. Stubble burning in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana is expected to pick up after Diwali, making it even more difficult to breathe.

It has now been well documented that air pollution severely affects our respiratory system, increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes and causes blood pressure to rise. The worst pollutant - PM2.5 - penetrates deep into the lungs and causes serious health problems.

Children and the elderly are the worst affected. Last year, Lancet published a study which showed the scale of the air emergency in all of India. According to the study, long-term exposure to air pollution increased deaths by 1.5 million deaths per year in India. A co-author of the study, Dr Joel Schwartz, was quoted as saying: “Delhi may get the headlines, but this is a problem all over India, and nationwide efforts are needed. Coal burning electric plants need scrubbers, crop burning needs to be limited, and most importantly, the government needs to recognise this as a major issue”.

And yet, the Supreme Court’s order has decided to appease a lobby that argues for firecrackers in the name of religion. All of us, irrespective of our religion or caste are being slowly poisoned to death by the toxic air we breathe. Unless citizens hold politicians accountable for these issues at the polling booth, nothing will change. But for that, we the people need to wake up to the health issues first. As the bursting of crackers shows, that realisation is far from there.