Firecrackers from Divali celebrations shroud Delhi in toxic smog
INDIA Pollution in the Indian capital Delhi exceeded the safe limit by 66 times yesterday, shrouding the city in toxic fumes the morning after millions of firecrackers were burst for the Hindu festival Diwali.
Delhi government monitors showed the density of fine pollutants small enough to evade the body’s natural defences and breach the bloodbrain barrier reached 1,665 in Anand Vihar, a central neighborhood. The World Health Organisation’s safe limit for pollutants that size is 25. Images from across Delhi showed it blanketed in thick haze that slowed traffic and engulfed the city’s bestknown monuments. Health officials warn the air can cause headaches and respiratory discomfort in the short term and has been linked to heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, cognitive decline and obesity in the long term. Along with exchanging sweets and lighting traditional lamps, contending with poisonous fog has become an annual feature of the Diwali festival in Delhi and other major Indian cities despite attempts by the Indian supreme court to limit the use of crackers during the season.
Last year the court banned the use of crackers in Delhi outright as a trial. This year it limited their use to a twohour window, and said only “green” crackers which supposedly emit less pollution and noise would be permitted. Both years, Delhi residents have flouted the restrictions, and crackers could still be heard going off in parts of the city yesterday. One research group, Urban Emissions, estimated five million kilograms of fireworks had been burst, the same as in 2017. Delhi police said they had seized more than 600kg of firecrackers from across the city, registered 120 criminal cases and arrested 28 people in the past day. “It’s a tradition,” said Gopal, 40, a fitness instructor based in Chatturpur, south of Delhi, who burst crackers with his children on Wednesday evening. “Lord Ram came home after 14 years so we celebrate it with crackers and sweets and many others things.” He said people elsewhere used fireworks to celebrate events such as New Year’s Eve. “We only use it for one day and that can be allowed,” Gopal said. “It’s not good if we’re not going to celebrate our tradition, which is more than 4,000 years old.” Talk shows in the country have debated whether the ban on firecrackers infringed Indians’ right to worship, with some making the point the firecrackers cause a shortterm spike in an environment already dangerously polluted by vehicles, industrial fumes, construction sites and the seasonal burning of crop residue by farmers in neighboring states. Pollution levels in the week leading up to Wednesday reached more than 25 times the safe limit, mostly due to farm fires Haryana and Punjab states, which formed a cloud of smoke over north India that “hundreds, if not thousands of kilometres long and about 20 to 30 kilometres wide”, said Josh Apte, an assistant professor at the University of Texas who researches air quality. (The Guardian)