India's capital bans fireworks to reduce air pollution October 14, 2024
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Oct 13, 2024
- 2 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
India's capital bans fireworks to reduce air pollution
India's capital, New Delhi, on Monday ordered a “total ban” on fireworks in a bid to reduce air pollution in a city where levels regularly rank among the worst in the world.
The ban is the strictest in a series of restrictions on the hugely popular fireworks - rules that have been widely flouted.
“There will be a total ban on the manufacture, storage, sale... and bursting of all types of fireworks,” the Delhi Pollution Control Board said in a statement.
The order was made given the “public interest in curbing high air pollution,” the committee said.
This comes two weeks before Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, on November 1, when many consider fireworks to be an integral part of the celebrations.
The spectacular and colorful festival symbolizes the victory of light over darkness, a celebration of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi.
Previous restrictions in the megapolis of around 30 million people were routinely ignored.
The police are generally reluctant to take action against offenders due to the strong religious feelings attached to crackers by devout Hindus.
New Delhi is covered in acrid smoke every autumn, mainly due to the burning of stubble by farmers in the surrounding areas, but the increase in fireworks at Diwali time exacerbates the problem.
Levels of fine particulate matter - cancer-causing microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the lungs - often reach more than 30 times the World Health Organization's danger limits in the city.
A Lancet report in 2020 said that almost 17,500 people died in Delhi in 2019 because of air pollution.
In the past, fireworks were smuggled across state borders or were available over the counter.
Residents would then set off the noisy explosives in the middle of the night or in the early hours of the morning to avoid problems.
But this year, Delhi's municipal authorities asked the state police to enforce the ban, requesting them to submit “daily reports of actions taken.”
The ban runs until the end of 2024.
sai/pjm/sn
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