On May 27, 2023, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited Egra in east Midnapore, where 11 people lost their lives in an explosion at an illegal firework unit, and promised actions against such units. She also asked locals to inform the police if they come across any illegal firework unit operating in their area.
On Jan 10, 2026, another blast in an illegal firework unit occurred in Champahati in south 24 parganas where so far three persons have died.
Between May 2023 and Jan 2026, fifteen such blasts occurred in the state killing 37 persons including children and injuring many. Incidentally, the chief minister’s commitment of setting up firework manufacturing clusters during her visit to Egra, to avoid such disasters, also remains on paper as not even a single firework manufacturing cluster has been set up in the state so far.
“From 2009 to recent time, more than 120 people have died and many were injured due to blasts in illegally run firework units in West Bengal. I consider this is no less than the murder of innocuous, mostly poor, people abetted by administrative failures” observed Biswajit Mukherjee, a green activist and retired chief law officer of West Bengal Pollution Control Board on Tuesday afternoon.
Hand in gloves
“Death due to the explosion in the unlicensed fireworks manufacturing units in the State of West Bengal is almost day to day affairs. West Bengal is now a hot spot in respect of unlicensed firework explosion cases and … incidents are going on with the passive support of the government and due to nexus between the government machinery and environmental criminals, who are engaged in manufacturing illegal fireworks” wrote Mukherjee in his latest letter, on behalf of nonprofit Paribesh Academy, addressed to senior environmental officials in both state and union government departments and agencies as well as police and district administration. A copy of the letter is with The Plurals.
“It is also observed by the Hon’ble National Green Tribunal that unlicensed fireworks manufacturing units are the main source of manufacturing crude man killing bombs Mukherjee,” further reminded Mukherjee.
“This is probably the fifteenth time I am writing letters to the senior officials of both union and state government urging them to take actions against these environmental criminals, but they keep on shuttle-cocking those from one table to other with virtually no action on ground,” alleged the former green department official.
Court actions decelerated
The activist claimed that the judicial actions have slowed down over the years and the trend is further worsening the cause; “The environmental movement within both the country and state had immensely benefited by the series of judicial pronouncements since mid-80s, but the trend has changed for the worse,” said Mukherjee.
The list is long.
According to the activist, in 2012, a case regarding the compensation to victims from the fireworks blast was filed by him in Calcutta high court, which is still pending. In context to another case in 2015, filed at National Green Tribunal, the bench directed the closure of all illegal firework units running in the state and asked state police and pollution control to take actions; nothing happened on ground.
“Subsequently I again filed a case in NGT in 2023 stating that no actions were taken in compliance of its earlier order about illegal firework units, but till now nothing happened,” said Mukherjee, who claimed that the public trust doctrine has also been violated.
The Public Trust Doctrine is a legal principle holding that the government should act as a trustee, safeguarding essential natural resources like air, water, forests, and wildlife for the benefit of the general public, both during present and future; and prevents these vital resources from being privatized or exploited for exclusive private gain, ensuring public access and sustainable use.
The Plurals has found that several other firework related cases, filed by a number of nonprofits or green platforms, are also pending in various judicial forums.