NO PENALTY FEAR: Celebrate this Diwali with green crackers
NEW DELHI: Be ready to celebrate this Diwali without any fear of being penalised for using traditional firecrackers as the government is ready with its new innovation — green crackers, which emit up to 30 per cent less particulate matter than conventional ones.
“The CSIR labs have been successful in developing various environment-friendly fireworks such as sound-emitting crackers, flowerpots, pencils, chakkari and sparklers. These fireworks, based on new formulations developed by CSIR, have been manufactured and are available in the Indian market for consumers and sellers at the prices similar to traditional crackers,” said Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan while showcasing different variants of nonpolluting crackers.
The green crackers have been developed by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR).
Talking about the timeline of the project, the Union Minister said that after banning of traditional crackers in 2017 by the Supreme Court, he had appealed to the scientists of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to make
such crackers which emit less pollution commonly known as ‘green crackers’.
“It was a great challenge for us. Apart from addressing the environmental concerns arising from the use of such fireworks, we had the challenge to protect the livelihoods of millions of people engaged in the manufacturing and sale of fireworks in the country. The scientists of CSIR finally developed green crackers that address both the concerns,” Vardhan said.
“The CSIR along with its eight laboratories took up the task and formulated these ecofriendly crackers which will have 30 per cent less emission than the traditional one”, the minister said.
On price issue, NEERI director Rakesh Kumar said, “The prices of some green crackers are almost similar to that of traditional ones, while some green crackers would cost lesser than earlier fireworks.”
The CSIR has named these crackers as “safe water releaser (SWAS)”, “safe minimal aluminium (SAFAL)” and “safe thermite cracker (STAR)” and all three crackers release water vapour or air as a dust suppressant and diluents for gaseous emissions.