Green fireworks, allowed by the Supreme Court stating that these would cut down on fire work related air pollution, grossly failed to deliver in Kolkata; as city’s air pollution levels had skyrocketed to ‘severe’ category, the most polluted level measurable, around Diwali midnight.
The levels around Diwali midnight were substantially higher compared to same timelines in days earlier and prior to the Diwali; underlining the impacts of fireworks being burst on the Diwali night.
Meteorological experts pointed out that the weather variables around midnight were consistent over the last few days including the Diwali night indicating it played no role in burgeoning the pollution levels.
The environmentalists and physicians claim that the results establish that the model of green fireworks is not working and urged the apex court to have a detailed relook at their firework related decision.
State pollution control board chairman Kalyan Rudra admitted that “indiscriminate bursting of expensive firecrackers was the cause for air pollution surge” and also held that fireworks being burst in the atmosphere were triggering more pollution.
Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma also admitted “few violations” but claimed that the city fared better than other metropolises and both the noise and air pollution levels in the city during Diwali were significantly lower this time compared to last year.
Pollution push
The Plurals analysis finds that there is nothing unofficial about the complaint of green fireworks pushing the pollution peril.
On 19 -20 Oct midnight, the day before Diwali, the average air quality index in city was 127, “moderate” which rose nearly 3.5 times to 434 on Diwali mid night and turned “severe”, the poorest air quality status measurable and, according to central pollution control board “affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases”.
The status improved two notches from “severe” to “poor” by 21-22 Oct midnight and was recorded at 266; while it improved further by Thursday midnight to “moderate” status of three nights back with AQI level recorded at 184.
The AQI was poorest and reached 500, the highest value measurable in the existing central pollution control board set up, around midnight of Diwali, at Jadavpur and Victoria memorial while the values were 450 and above in Rabindra Sarobar ,Bidhannagar and Ballygunge. Only the measurements at Fort Williams and Rabindra Bharati recorded lower figures; 388 and 375 respectively.
The surge was phenomenal in all places rising in the range of three to 15 times during the Diwali day; for example the AQI rose from 32 to 470 in Ballygunge.
“Like rest of the country, Kolkata air pollution rose due to uncontrolled bursting of so-called green fireworks, rather than for weather conditions. As a matter of fact, the weather condition, this Diwali, was better than the years before and we have largely frittered away the advantedge this year with allowance of free for all bursting of so-called green crackers” observed Gufran Baig, director of SAFAR (system of air quality and weather forecasting and research) under ministry of earth science of union government.
“The fact that, the Diwali sky was generally found heavy only at pockets, especially above the urban areas, points towards the impact of firecracker bursting rather than atmospheric condition; earlier Diwali also helped,” added the scientist.
Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) scientists agree. “Our data shows that the weather condition in Kolkata remained similar in all these days with wind condition remaining calm and minimum temperatures were recorded around 26 to 27 degrees Celsius” pointed Habibur Rahman Biswas, the scientist, and head of IMD Kolkata to this correspondent.
The green fireworks, instead of conventional fireworks, were allowed by an apex court ruling in 2018 with the contention, based on inputs from union government agencies like central pollution control board (CPCB) and national environmental engineering institute (NEERI) inputs; those claimed that such fireworks may reduce the air pollution by around 30 percent.
While experts from the green platform Sabuj Mancha found that the norms were grossly violated as a routine in all hospitals in the city, meant to bethe silent zones, a former state pollution control board chief law officer claimed that the recent Diwali was “noisiest” since a Calcutta high court verdict in 1996 triggered actions against noise violations in West Bengal. Later, the act provided the base for promulgation of national noise rules.
Activists aghast
“Clearly the experiment with green fireworks has failed and Supreme Court has to rethink its firework strategy; too many people’s health including the children, elderly and already sick are at stake” observed Dulal Bose, one of the country’s foremost ENT specialist and former sheriff of Kolkata.
Senior pulmonologists agree. “Clearly the present model is not working. If the governments have to allow fireworks it must ensure regulated bursting as per law and fix a designated place for bursting like several international cities,” opined Ajoy Sarkar, a senior physician from Peerless hospital. Arup Haldar, a pulmonologist from Calcutta Medical Research Institute, pointed out that the so called green fireworks are hardly ‘green’ in character and trigger significant air pollution.
“It seems that the precautionary principle on environment was not duly considered in this case. The palpable violation of judicial directions contributed to this scenario. The apex court needs to have a look at the trend and pass appropriate order” observed Biswajit Mukherjee, a retired chief law officer of state PCB. Naba Dutta, a green activist and secretary of green platform Sabuj Mancha, explained how they witnessed wide spread violation even in hospitals, the silent zones, and demanded that the fireworks should be entirely banned as the present experiment with green fireworks clearly failed to achieve its goal.