As per the new order, firecrackers may only be burst during specified time windows: From 8.00 pm to 10.00 pm on Diwali (31 October) and from 11.55 pm to 12.30 am for Christmas and New Year. Additionally, only green crackers will be permitted for sale across the state.
Published Oct 23, 2024 | 2:25 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 23, 2024 | 2:25 PM
Firecrackers have high smoke emissions due to their high magnesium and cordite content which can have adverse affect on you. (Creative Commons)
The Kerala government issued a directive limiting the use of firecrackers for Deepavali, Christmas, and New Year celebrations, sources said on on Wednesday, 23 October.
As per the new order, firecrackers may only be burst during specified time windows: From 8.00 pm to 10.00 pm on Deepavali (31 October) and from 11.55 pm to 12.30 am for Christmas and New Year.
Additionally, only green crackers will be permitted for sale across the state.
This decision follows recommendations from the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), which has urged immediate measures to regulate firecracker usage during the Deepavali festivities.
According to the SPCB, Kerala’s ambient air quality index has not fallen below the “moderate” category in any city or town between September 2023 and September 2024, based on monthly average data.
Consequently, the board advised that green crackers be allowed for use only within the designated two-hour window on Deepavali.
On 22 September last year, while rejecting a plea by firecracker manufacturers challenging the total ban on the sale of green as well as other variants of firecrackers in the national capital, Delhi the Supreme Court had reiterated the directions issued in its 23 October, 2018, order banning the use of barium as an oxidiser in the production of crackers across the country.
During the hearing then, ASG Bhati said that a RACE facility — raw material, composition, emission, testing facility — has been set up in Sivakasi, the largest firecracker-manufacturing centre in the country, for the regular and random testing of the firecrackers to enforce compliance with green norms.
The RACE, ASG Bhati told the bench, would undertake testing involving the purity of the raw material/chemicals used in fireworks, testing of the composition of formulation in fireworks and the testing of emission and sound therefrom, digital quality control, (including usage of green logo and QR code), skill training programme.
ASG told the court that the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) was working with the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO), and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
She said that firecrackers with 30 percent less emission of particulate matter were being manufactured by the firework manufacturers.
She said that CSIR-NEERI and the firework manufacturers were jointly working to achieve 40 to 50 percent or 35 to 40 percent reduction in the emission of particulate matter.
One more such facility has been set up in Nagpur, the court was informed.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
