Anti-firecracker drive fails

This Diwali nearly blasted away the Delhi government's claim that its anti-cracker drive has succeeded.

Pollution crossed prescribed levels as crackers were burst until well past midnight, although the Supreme Court had ordered that crackers could be burst only between 6pm and 10pm.

Says Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) chairman Dilip Biswas, "Children might have said 'no' to crackers, but not the adults. The neo-rich believe in a vulgar display of wealth and this 10 per cent of the population causes the maximum pollution."

Certainly, several posh colonies of Delhi either showed a rise in noise or air pollution levels. In fact, Diwali had a mixed impact on atmospheric and noise pollution in the city.

While concentration of respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) did not decline significantly, levels of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide decreased. Though, it was still much higher than pollution levels prescribed by the CPCB.

Nevertheless, RSPM was almost 8.5 times more than the limit at ITO crossing and almost 11 times more in Ashok Vihar.

Says a CPCB official, "The decibel limits are generally flouted by the affluent business community. And the levels recorded at several points are between 70 decibel and 85 decibel. Actually, the technical lab shows that most firecrackers being sold are too loud."

The noise levels went up at 16 of the 30 locations monitored by CPCB. The only solace being that the peak level was lower. The highest noise level recorded was 91.2 decibels in the business class-dominated Karol Bagh area. This is comparatively lower than last year's 100 decibels, recorded in Paschim Vihar. However, the permissible limit is 55 decibels.

Prominent places that remained noisy included: Naoroji Nagar (87.5), Moti Bagh (85.4), Lajpat Nagar (85), Ashok Vihar (84.5), Janakpuri (82.3), New Friends Colony (81) and Mayur Vihar (80).

The results are not encouraging. Advises Biswas, the CPCB chief, "Residents should try to reduce pollution and not produce it. And as is noticeable that crackers increase air and noise pollution, we are offsetting all the benefits gained by numerous measures taken to make the city cleaner."

Meanwhile, unlike previous years, government hospitals showed a decline in the flow of patients burnt because of firecrackers. A drop of about 25 to 40 per cent in the number of patients was attributed to Delhiites exercising caution while handling fireworks.

But the same cannot be said about sufferers of respiratory diseases. Physicians in the city reported that the number of allergy and asthma patients coming to them had increased sharply. The cases commonly reported were of cold, cough and asthma.

Explains a doctor, "Pollutants in the air remain much higher than the permissible limit. And suspended particulate matter (SPM) is known to aggravate asthma and other respiratory diseases. So, more than 90 per cent patients coming to our clinic are having pollution-related problems."

However, according to the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) department, the number of fires has come down considerably this Diwali. And the fires caused were of minor nature. Says a DFS official, "This is due to the anti-firecracker campaign which has been particularly successful among school children."

The state government had conducted anti-cracker campaigns, and taken the message 'say no to firecrackers' to 1,200 capital based eco-friendly schools through various academic programmes, cinema slides and the Doordarshan.

Says Anumita Roy Chowdhury, coordinator, Air Pollution Control Unit, Centre for Science and Environment, "Convincing children alone with not resolve the pollution issue. There is a need to involve other sections of the society as well to make them aware of the ill-effects of crackers."