Why Are Fireworks Being Banned in Delhi this October?

The supreme court of India has ruled to ban the sale of fireworks and firecrackers in New Delhi during the month of October, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the terrible smog pollution that plagued the capital last Diwali.

As the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali (taking place this year on the 19^th October) traditionally involves the setting off of many cheap firecrackers. However, the arsenic, mercury and other harmful toxins released by these pyrotechnics were responsible for dangerously high levels of air contamination last year and the government are keen to implement measures to prevent such an outcome again.

Dangerous levels of pollution

In 2016, the Diwali festival was followed by unprecedented levels of pollution in the Indian capital. The harmful pollutant particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) is small enough to be inhaled and enter directly into the bloodstream, causing a myriad health problems and complications.

In 2015, the release of fireworks saw PM2.5 levels reach a high of 435 parts per million (ppm), itself far in excess of safe levels as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Last year, that peak figure rocketed up to 1,238ppm, resulting in the closure of schools, factories, power plants and construction sites. For comparison, the WHO has advised that PM2.5 levels should not exceed 10ppm over a yearly average.

In response, the Indian government initially banned the sale of all firecrackers in Delhi outright at the start of December 2016. An appeal from fireworks manufacturers had led to the ban being overruled, but the supreme court has now ruled that it should remain in place until November in order to alleviate cripplingly bad air quality in the capital during Diwali.

“Let’s try out at least one Diwali without firecrackers,” one judge told The Hindu, a national Indian newspaper. The measure is just one part of a wider-reaching set of proposals aimed at tackling the country’s poor air quality.

Bigger problems the real culprit

The firecracker manufacturing industry has hit out at the ban, claiming that the sale of pyrotechnics during Diwali is only responsible for a fleeting spike in pollution, and that the root causes of Delhi’s terrible air quality lie elsewhere.

In particular, the lax standards in the construction, power generation and industrial spheres have been highlighted as contributing to the current air quality crisis. Whereas emissions in the UK and Europe are tightly controlled by regulations such as the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), environmental practices are not so heavily policed in the Asian superpower.

At the same time, a booming population and the ever-expanding vehicular emissions which go hand-in-hand with this exacerbate the problem, along with the combustion of crop waste on rural farms surrounding the capital city in autumn. Given the colder temperatures and decreased wind speeds, it’s no surprise that the pollution has less chance to dissipate.

To give them their credit, the Indian government last week announced a sliding scale action plan geared towards tackling air pollution. Depending on the air quality on any given day, parking fees in the city may be raised and public transport services expanded to allow people to leave cars at home, with only odd- and even-numbered cars allowed into the centre on alternating days.