The growing cost of our collective indifference

The Supreme Court upheld its directive banning firecrackers, allowing only green crackers. The exact opposite happened on the ground. Delhi and the National Capital Region reverberated late into the night, not just on Diwali but for the next two nights as well. The toxic fumes they spewed turned the already polluted air lethal. According to AQI.in, Delhi’s Air Quality Index stood at 309 on Diwali morning; past midnight, it breached 1,747. By Friday morning, Delhi had become the world’s most polluted city. Of the 100 most polluted cities globally, 91 were in India.

This hazardous situation reminded me of Auschwitz, where the Nazis sent nearly 1.1 million Jews to the gas chambers. But in Delhi, there was no Hitler; we had voluntarily inflicted this fate upon ourselves. Consider the case of a housing society in Noida, where every resident is considered an HNI, or High Net Worth Individual. Responsible behaviour is expected of them, yet they crossed every limit. Last year, some residents had objected to late-night fireworks within the society premises. This year, the clever minds found a workaround. From 8 pm, people began gathering on the road outside the society. Within three hours, lakhs of rupees had gone up in smoke, creating noise pollution and filling the air with toxic fumes.

The revelry might have continued but for an accident in which a speeding vehicle rammed into a young girl celebrating in the middle of the road. Several others narrowly escaped being mowed down. The driver fled. Fortunately, the girl’s injuries were not life-threatening. But Rishi from Delhi’s Narela was not so lucky. That night, a rocket he lit pierced his chest instead of shooting into the sky, claiming his life. The tragedy of Monu from Anand Parvat is equally gut-wrenching. When he cited government rules to stop a neighbour’s child from bursting crackers late at night, he was beaten so brutally that he succumbed to his injuries. That same night, in Baghpat in the NCR, Saurabh Tomar, a member of the President’s Bodyguard, was shot dead over the same issue.

Is it madness that we forget even the basic courtesy of being good neighbours? Everyone lighting firecrackers knows that they and their families will be the ones choking on the pollution. Yet why indulge in this strange death wish?

Here, I must draw attention to another stark reality. Skyscrapers are mushrooming across Indian metros, yet our fire brigades remain ill-equipped to deal with them. In most cities, firefighters lack the equipment to reach the top floors of high-rises from outside. Under such circumstances, reckless fireworks can trigger a catastrophe at any moment. No one would like to see a towering inferno in his neighbourhood.

Has our collective conscience forgotten its age-old duty and sunk into apathy? How can government rules ever succeed until those who endlessly complain about pollution wake up to their own responsibility?

Several other questions demand answers. The Supreme Court had ordered that only green crackers be allowed in NCR. Does India manufacture enough green crackers to meet this demand? Shouldn’t an official audit of their production be made public? It is widely said that large quantities of firecrackers are imported from China and emit far more toxins than Indian ones. Who imported them, who sold them and why was no action taken?

It does not end there. Yesterday was Chhath. Devotees across the country waded into rivers and water bodies. Sipping the sacred water—aachman—is an integral part of the tradition. Yet the water in most of our rivers is unfit even for bathing, let alone drinking. What else can be expected when people routinely dump puja waste, garbage, and human ashes into these very rivers?