DOES INDIA NEED A BAN ON MANUFACTURE OF FIRE CRACKERS? – AN ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE
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Abstract
High pollution levels in India are not a recent phenomenon and its miserable rank of 177 out of 180 in Environmental Performance Index shows the amount of efforts needed to improve environment.1 Various factors like discharge of industrial effluents, vehicular emissions, inconsiderate garbage dumping, burning of fossil fuels, agricultural activities, mining etc. contribute to all forms of pollution in India. Though not paid much consideration (except during Diwali season), burning of firecrackers and fireworks [hereinafter referred to as crackers collectively] is a major source of pollution of air, water and land. The bursting of crackers results in shooting up of particulate matter (PM) levels by the levels much beyond the safe levels suggested by World Health Organisation. Though burning of crackers is usually only associated with air pollution, it also results in noise, land, and water pollution. Millions are spent each year for crackers which eventually leads to contamination of all the natural resources. Further, lives are lost and others are mutilated permanently. Not only humans, but animals and plants suffer alike immensely from burning of fire crackers. The recent Supreme Court judgement of Arjun Gopal and Ors. v. Union of India,2 prohibited sale of fire crackers in Delhi during Diwali due to alarmingly deteriorating air quality, which sparked a big debate regarding ban on crackers. However, the judgement took a communal colour and was widely opposed. The opposition on the ban comes in the name of jobs being lost and economic activity being curtailed due to vested interest of the cracker industry. Further, it was contended that burning of crackers is an integral and essential religious practice of Hinduism during Diwali which gave the ban a communal twist. The present paper attempts to contemplate the whether there should be a complete ban on manufacture of firecrackers and whether it can be constitutionally validated.
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