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Around this very time last year, the Supreme Court was moved for a complete ban on firecrackers, over concerns of increasing air pollution. Further, petitioners sought restrictions on arbitrary bursting of crackers, especially in the mornings, and argued that there should be designated places for this activity.

All of this led to no result as the Supreme Court ruled that people can’t be expected to move out of their houses to designated places for bursting crackers to celebrate the festival. Moreover, banning crackers altogether would affect the sanctity of the festival and hurt religious sentiment.

Nevertheless, the government of India has always been alive to the case of getting rid of the cheaper, more harmful Chinese crackers that flout the market. Several laws have been passed time and again.

Every year around Diwali, these laws are revised and tightened. This year, the Delhi government pledged to take action along these very lines, to keep these crackers out of the market. Special teams have been formed check the illegal trade of these foreign crackers in the market.

Kapil Mishra, the interim minister of the environment department of Delhi tweeted, "Have instructed the Secretary of Environment to ensure a complete ban on Chinese crackers across Delhi. The Chinese firecrackers are said to be unsafe, hazardous to use and have detrimental effects on people's health. Last year's experience says it is in use and available everywhere".

These Chinese crackers provide better profit margin for the traders. They are also favoured by people as they make more noise and light, and attain greater height. But all this is because of the high content of potassium chlorate, which is hazardous as it can explode anytime. Whereas, Indian crackers use potassium nitrate and aluminium powder, which are more expensive, increasing the price of the Indian counterparts. These are not only more dangerous, they take a lot of revenue out of the pockets of Indian manufacturers, putting them in misery.

You can read more about the Delhi government’s initiatives against the sale of these crackers here.

The Centre had released a written notice in 2014 warning importers, traders and public of the use of these foreign crackers and the consequences of the same. The Delhi government has also been trying to curb their sale. But, to little avail.

On the outsides of the market the sellers might refuse to sell them, but once you infiltrate deep inside, there is open trade of these dangerous crackers going on. The inner roads of the market boast of street vendors openly selling Chinese ‘pop-pops’ pulling strings and the like, and people gathering in big numbers to procure these illegal and harmful crackers. The very wholesalers who earlier denied having anything to do with these, were the very people to supply these street vendors with crackers, who already ordered them in bulk.

You can read more about this and about HT’s field study on the matter here.

With the pollution and toxicity levels rising, these are definitely going to add to the misery both of the people and of the environment. Yet, the efforts are still underway and some result can be seen, though there is still a long way to go.

It might be a better discourse to adopt the true spirit of this festival of ‘lights’ by shunning noisy, polluting crackers and spreading lights around with beautiful candles, diyas and lanterns.

We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Diwali. Enjoy!