Supreme Court’s impulsive or compulsive crackdown on firecrackers during Dipavali:

It seems, the Supreme Court impulsively and compulsively wakes up every year before the Hindu Festival of Dipavali. It all started in 2016 and has continued in Dipavali of 2017 and 2018.

The Supreme Court on October 9, 2017 had reinstated the ban on sale of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR, saying that there was “direct evidence of deterioration of air quality at alarming levels” every year during Diwali on account of bursting of firecrackers. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice A K Sikri, upheld the November 11, 2016 Supreme Court order, suspending all licenses that “permit sale of fireworks wholesale and retail within the territory of NCR”.

The court said that last year’s order was made after Diwali, and hence there has been no chance of testing its effect on air quality so far. The bench, which also included Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre and Justice Ashok Bhushan, said, “We are of the view that the order suspending the licenses should be given one chance to test itself in order to find out as to whether there would be positive effect of this suspension, particularly during Diwali period”.

It does not require any study to ascertain the effect of firecrackers on air pollution. It is bound to go up during these two days. It also goes up during X’mas. It also goes up when political parties light firecrackers on their candidates winning elections. But SC has banned firecrackers only during Dipavali period.

In this context, it is important to go through the “Air Pollution in Delhi – An Analysis” done by ENVIS Centre CPCB, Central Pollution Control Board in 2016. The conclusion drawn by CPCB is as follows:

“Based on the above observations, it can be said that the air of Delhi is polluted esp. in terms of particulates. According to a study, vehicular pollution alone contributes about 72% of the total air pollution load in Delhi as estimated using emission factor and activity-based approach recommended by IPCC. However, present study finds that it is not only the vehicular pollution, rather, domestic pollution, industrial emission, road dust, and garbage burning also have a large share in Delhi’s total pollution load. Furthermore, construction of infrastructure including large residential complexes potentially contributes to the Delhi’s air pollution load.

Study also finds that the concentration of SO2 is well under control. This is due to phasing out of diesel driven buses, reduction of sulphur content in diesel by about 90%, and implication of Bharat Stage IV norms in vehicles of Delhi. The major cause of rising NO2 concentration in Delhi is increased traffic load. In atmosphere, the combination of nitric oxide (NO), ozone (O3), and hydrocarbons leads to the formation of NO2. Therefore to minimize the NO2 pollution, all the three components involved in its formation needs to be targeted. To substantiate the findings, trend of increasing vehicular usage is shown in figure 5. Since 2005–06 to 2014–15, 82.75% increase can be noted in the number of registered vehicles in Delhi. Moreover, the excessive usage of cars and motor cycles are the pertinent causes for rising vehicular pollution load. This corroborates the cause of increasing NO2 as well as particulate matter concentration. Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) emanates especially from the vehicular exhausts; particularly diesel vehicles, road dust, and industrial activities such as combustion processes, construction activities etc.

Tremendous growth of industrial sector is also responsible for pollution. As per the report of Economic Survey of Delhi 2014-15, there are 8.93 lakhs total industrial establishments operating in Delhi according to 6th Economic Census 2013, which is 18.35% more than the number of establishments according to 5th Economic Census 2005. In many of the industries, installed air pollution control devices are found in idle conditions which lead to the emission of pollutants directly into the atmosphere without any filtration. Further, construction of short chimneys also restricts the polluting gases to escape into the upper layers of the atmosphere.

Traffic congestion on the roads, although underestimated, is another very important factor as far as air pollution is concerned. As it is evident from figure 5, cars and jeeps are responsible for a major share of Delhi’s vehicular load, their congestion on the roads create nuisance. Moreover, 4-wheelers also need a lot of space for parking. This further reduces the space on the roads leading to high frequency of traffic jams. To reduce the pollution at traffic intersection points, time clocks have been installed at most of the points in the city. But it has been observed that hardly any vehicle owner switches off the engine during that period. Thus fuel is continuously burned at a fixed place which further adds up in the atmospheric pollution load.

Meteorological issues:

Apart from the vehicular and industrial emissions, local climatic and seasonal factors also affect the air quality of Delhi. Delhi, being a land-locked territory, is unable to dilute its emission using the moderating effects of sea; the opportunity availed by other metropolitan cities, such as Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Surrounded by the regions of varied climate, Delhi also represents a great variability in the seasonal patterns. At its west, there is Great Indian Desert (Thar Desert) of Rajasthan while in the north and east direction there are cool hilly regions. At its south, there are central hot plains. Thus, Delhi is located in the subtropical belt with extremely scorching summers, moderate rainfall, and chilling winters.

The winters are extremely important in Delhi as it is dominated by cold, dry air, and ground based inversion with low wind conditions, which are responsible for increasing concentration of pollutants. High concentration of pollutants is trapped close to earth’s surface because a layer of warm air acts as a lid on top of this layer. Moreover, dense smog formation during winter months has also been witnessed in Delhi, the reason of which is vehicular pollution as well as the prevailing meteorological conditions in the months of December and January. Similarly, wind pattern also affects the weather conditions. According to a study, during the autumn and winter months, approximately 500 million tons of crop residues are burnt in Indo- Gangetic plains. The image in figure 6(a) shows the biomass burning in the state of Punjab. The wind blows from India’s north and north-west to the east direction during winters as depicted from the wind-rose diagram of Delhi (Figure 6b). This ultimately results in combination of pollution and fog, leading to heavy smog formation in Delhi esp. during winters. In summers, although there is no inversion phenomenon, still the air quality gets deteriorated because of the increased concentration of PM10, which is due to dust. However, it becomes toxic due to the coating of polluted emissions from various sources. Nevertheless, during rainy season pollution level goes down due to dust suspension. Thus, air pollution in Delhi is a trans-boundary and climate induced phenomenon.”

The image of crop burning in Punjab and its severity is shown in the photo captured by NASA. The red colour depicts fires lighted by the farmers in Punjab.

This conclusion clearly reveals that air pollution in Delhi is for variety of reasons that virtually contribute 99.999%. The firecrackers during Dipavali might be contributing 0.001%. This report seems to have not been brought to the notice of the bench that passed the order banning sale of firecrackers in Delhi during Dipavali.

This year again, Supreme Court passed a diktat covering not only Delhi but the entire India by limiting the bursting of fire crackers to a limited time span of 08.00pm-10.00pm. Ironically, the SC also gave the concession to burst crackers on New Year’s Eve till 00.30 hours.

Needless to say, this diktat was burst first by the people. The diktat was given the respect it deserved – both in 2017 as well as in 2018. In the process, the SC ended up looking like a bunch of below average lawyers occupying the chairs in the edifice called Supreme Court who want to pass some order on some trivial issues as complicated and serious issues like Ram Temple, etc. are too heavy for them to adjudicate.

But banning only fire crackers contributing 0.001% or so to air pollution and ignoring the polluting sources contributing 99.999% to air pollution renders the whole exercise of the Supreme Court in dealing with air pollution clearly polluted – to say the least.

The judgment banning sale of firecrackers for 2 days in Dipavali in 2017 and restricting it for 2 hours in 2018 and observing the effect on air pollution is akin to ordering fasting for 2 days or eating only for 2 hours and observing its effect on chronic obesity! And yes, as the Hindu Festival of Dipavali is over, the whole talk of air pollution has also vanished.

Now the air is clean and it will remain clean, no matter how much crackers would be burst on New Year’s Eve..!! And it will remain clean till Dipavali of 2019..!!