Last week was a bright week to all of us. We all celebrated the festival of lights-Deepavali with our family and friends. Diwali is also one of my favourite festivals. But the only thing I hate in this festival is crackers. The amount of pollution that is caused by these crackers is unimaginable.
During this festival, air pollution rises to dangerously high levels. The harmful effect of Diwali remains for many days or even months. On the Diwali night, after I finished my dinner, I came out and looked up at the sky. I could see the smoke that looked like clouds. I was shocked to see the amount of smoke that was produced just within a few hours. And the next day, the headlines in every news channel said "India's capital, Delhi, woke up to the grey skies". This was not just in Delhi, but the whole country woke up to the grey sky. India is the world's third largest carbon emitter. The reports say India must reduce it's carbon footprint by 33%-35% by 2030. Twenty of the world's 30 most polluted cities are in India according to world air quality report.
These things are not something we should be proud of. Almost one third of deaths in India every year are due to air pollution. And most of the people in India get respiratory problems during Diwali. Not just humans, crackers cause a negative effect on animals too. When my neighbours were bursting crackers, there was a cow in front of their house. Every time a loud cracker was bursted, the way it hid itself in the bushes due to fear was painful to watch. And every time a loud sound was made by a cracker, I could see birds flying aimlessly in anxiety. And dogs!! India is known to have large number of street dogs. Every street in India has at least one or two street dogs or even a group of 10 to 15 street dogs. But what's surprising was, there was not even one street dog in the streets during Diwali. Who knows where they hid themselves.
Every year many environmentalists come out and educate people to stop bursting crackers. But the number of crackers that is bursted every year is not decreasing. All of us are educated. We all know the effect of bursting crackers. We all know how our grandparents keep the windows shut to avoid the noise and to avoid the smoke entering the house. We all know how our kids lose their eyes or get hurt while bursting crackers. We all know how our new born babies are frightened every time a cracker is bursted. We all know how frightened our pets will be when a cracker makes a loud noise. Yet we are the ones who burst crackers. We are the same people who put ten's of photos about saving environment in our WhatsApp statuses, forward long messages about conserving our nature, click pictures of planting a tree on environment day. And later we are the ones to burst crackers and pollute our Earth. Diwali is the festival of lights. But are we really celebrating it that way? Diwali is supposed to spread brightness and happiness everywhere. Instead it has now become a festival of increasing pollution. This time It's Delhi, next time it might be our place. I see no good in bursting crackers. But what's done is done. Damage is already done. We should correct it before it's too late.
Environment day is not just one day. We should celebrate every day as environment day. It is our duty to keep the earth green and clean.
