To allay the concerns of air pollution, which particularly emanates during the Hindu festival of Diwali, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday launched eco-friendly green firecrackers, which have been manufactured in India.
According to the reports, the Union Minister announced that Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) labs have been successful in developing various environment-friendly fireworks such as sound-emitting crackers, flowerpots, pencils, chakkar and sparklers. The festival of lights, Diwali, will be celebrated in India on 27th October this year.
“I am very happy that on one hand, we would be using eco-friendly crackers this Diwali, and, on the other hand, our traditional festival celebrations with lights and firecrackers shall remain intact. Millions of homes which are dependent on the sale and manufacture of fireworks will also rejoice this festival, thanks to our scientists!” he said.
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan also launched the green crackers manufactured by licensee-manufacturers. He also informed that a green logo as well as a Quick Response (QR) coding system has been developed for differentiation of green crackers from conventional crackers.
“Emissions testing facilities for the new firecrackers have been set up at CSIR-NEERI as well as their approved National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration (NABL) facilities whose list is available at CSIR NEERI website. Further, a Raw Materials Compositional Analysis (RACE) facility has been launched in Sivakasi to facilitate manufacturers for testing their raw materials and chemicals,” said Vardhan.
The Health Minister stated that due to the ban that had been imposed as per the orders of the Supreme Court, there was a threat of imminent closure of the entire fireworks industry. However, Science has once again come to the rescue of the common man and millions of jobs have been saved due to the interventions made by our scientists.
Praising the effort of CSIR in developing green crackers, the Minister informed that nearly 165 fireworks manufacture have been roped in and around 65 more manufacturers are in the process of coming on board.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had said the newly developed crackers, by its own assessment, would reduce particulate matter pollution by 30%. Further, the organisation has signed agreements with 230 companies to manufacture and make them available for sale.
In 2018, just before Diwali, the Supreme Court had banned manufacturing of polluting firecrackers and ruled that only green crackers with reduced emission will be allowed to be sold in the country in order to control the pollution level. The apex court had also restricted the time that crackers could be burst on Diwali and police officials were tasked with enforcement.
