Indu was looking forward
to celebrating her first Diwali with her husband in Delhi. Hailing from Kangra,
the tea-garden town in Himachal Pradesh, her wedding to a Delhi-based engineer
this summer had made her move to the big city. She did celebrate Diwali with
her husband Suresh Sharma and his family – lighted diyas, went shopping in
swank malls, helped her mother-in-law with her Diwali special menu, received
gifts from members of the extended family and everyone prayed for her safe
pregnancy. “I was excited and very happy,” she said.
However, within days
Indu became sick and had to be hospitalized. “I could see the sky first turning
grey hiding the sun and then with each passing day, it was becoming hazy all
around. But I could never imagine that one day breathing would become an effort,”
Indu, in her late twenties told me as we met in the waiting room of a local
doctor in Mayur Vihar phase I, East Delhi. “On the Sunday after Diwali, I
simply couldn’t breathe and it’s when I sensed Delhi was a horrible place to
live in at least post-Diwali,” she said.
The experience shattered
Indu’s dream of a big city and last I heard from her was the news that she and
her family had decided to shift to Kangra where she would live during the
remaining months of her pregnancy.
Indu was not alone to face
the health emergency triggered by a cocktail of deadly pollutants that makes
Delhi’s air one of the worst to inhale. For a week after people had celebrated
the festival of light commemorating Lord Rama’s victory over Ravana -
symbolizing the victory of good over the evil - and return to his Kingdom
Ayodhya after 14 years of exile, the ordinary mortals were struggling with the
impact of fire crackers burning on the day.
On one particular day,
the environmental gadgets had recorded the level of PM2.5 pollutants, which are
the most harmful as they can reach deep into the lungs and harm the nervous
system as well, had reached at least 999 in parts of the city. This is more
than 16 times the safe limit of 60. On this particular day Delhi and
surrounding cities and towns wore a thick blanket of smog – air was full of
suspended particles of harmful elements that one had read about it chemistry
and only seen in the laboratories, throwing up an environmental emergency.
The environmentalist
gave two reasons for the situation: the already pollutant-saturated atmosphere
that had become stagnant due to fall in temperature and secondly – which was
the trigger – the riots of burning of fire crackers on Diwali and paddy stubble
in Punjab and Haryana by the farmers.
Post-Diwali, thus, the
National capital region of Delhi with 25 million population had become the most
polluted city in the world. It was quite a dubious rise from its ranking as the
11th most polluted city in the world, as per the World health
organization. The WHO recommends that PM2.5 be kept below 10 as an annual
average. It warns that exposure to average annual concentrations of PM2.5 of 35
or above can increase the change of early death by 15 per cent. Delhi average
PM2.5 level at 122 has already crossed the danger mark!
Scientists however warn that
while the stubble may be causing carbon particles to hang in the air giving
skies the grey and hazy look however, the real culprit behind triggering a host
of respiratory and skin diseases in this season is the fire cracker, that the
new age Hindus love to burn with gay abandon on Diwali. They warn that when a
fire cracker is lighted, the smoke-emanating from it charges the air with
partially combusted low volatile organic compounds which remain suspended in the
atmosphere for several days. This is not only disturbing for the asthmatic
people but can also cause breathing difficulties for a healthy person. No
wonder the doctors’ clinics are visited by hordes of patients with lung and
breathing ailment and even young children are administered steroids through
nebulizer for quick relief from breathlessness.
Doctors warn that many
crackers have toxic compounds like copper and cadmium, which stay suspended in
the air in dust form. When inhaled these cause damage to the respiratory track
and lungs increasing the risk of asthma attacks, bronchitis and symptoms of
allergic rhinitis, including sneezing, runny nose and headaches.
As the festival
coincides with the onset of winter and sudden fall in temperatures, the air does
not move making pollutants linger on in the air for long.
Health experts say the
perception that only fire crackers which give away a loud noise and display of
fire are bad is a fallacy. In fact the black tablets that wind up like snake
and are considered safe for the smaller children to burn have the worst impact
on air quality. According to the Pune based Chest Research Foundation,
anyone with an airway disease can suffer badly due to the deadly gases released
by the tablet.
Though environmental,
green activists and schools have been spreading message of cracker less Diwali,
the rise in exhibitionist religiosity makes it difficult for any government or
the administrator to impose a ban on the crackers.
In fact after the
situation had worsened, the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi took emergency
steps like closure of schools, vacuum cleaning of selected road and ban on
constructions etc. While he blamed the farmers for burning the stubble,
Kejriwal too chose to keep mum over the burning of fire crackers in Diwali.
Finally, it was left to
the Supreme Court to order ban on the sale of fire crackers in Delhi and
NCR region. The court is hearing a petition on the government’s lack of
reaction on the alarming air pollution in the region. As a quick and the first
remedial step the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur
passed this verdict.
The ban on fire crackers should be welcomed by the
Hindus, as it would restore the beautiful way of celebrating the festival of
Deepawali with traditional devotion and gaiety – by lighting the Diyas (earthen
lamps).
(Published on 12nd December 2016, Volume XXVIII, Issue 50)#
