“Environment friendly crackers” have not yet reached the market

Mangaluru: The bursting of crackers during Deepavali festival causes widespread air and noise pollution and in order to bring down the environmental pollution, the government has introduced environment friendly crackers which apparently produce less smoke. But till now, no clear direction concerning this has come from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.

In order to drive away the fear of air pollution, union minister Dr| Harshvardhan recently announced the introduction of environment friendly crackers in the market. These crackers have been created by the scientists of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the guidelines of the Supreme Court. However, although there remain only a couple of days remain for deepavali, the new proposed environment-friendly crackers have not yet reached the markets.

Demand will not fall

The MD of Manjunath crackers palace in the city said, “The union government has released environment friendly crackers. But it has not yet entered the market here. If in case, the environment friendly crackers are introduced into the market, it will not bring down the demand for the existing crackers. This is because, some prefer to stick to a particular brand of crackers and do not like change,” he observed.

Maya trader’s owner Anant Kumar said, “Environment friendly crackers have not come into the market. Two more days remain for the festival, and the purchase of crackers has begun. In our shop, we have stopped the sale of Chinese crackers and there is a demand for domestic crackers.’

Awareness in schools, industries

KSPCB in association with some organizations is working on spreading awareness regarding crackers. They have visited a few schools in the city and spread awareness among the students. They have also held programmes by visiting industries with greater work force and spread awareness among the employees regarding crackers and the environment pollution caused by it.

What is this environment friendly cracker?

The environment friendly crackers cause less noise pollution besides, also produce less smoke. It reduced the harm cause to the environment. It causes a minimum pollution of 30%. In the backdrop of the scientists requesting for an alternative for polluting crackers, the government has produced crackers which only cause less environment pollution. These crackers will carry a QR code.

No clear information

No clear information concerning the environment friendly crackers has come to us, be it from the centre or state. For this very reason, these crackers have not yet entered the market. The KSPCB has already conducted awareness programmed regarding the use of environment friendly crackers in the district – Jayaprakash Nayak, Pollution Control Board Officer

Awareness will spread

On the occasion of deepavali, people should take care while exploding crackers. In this concern and from the safety’s point of view, the police department will hold programmes to spread awareness amongst the public – P S Harsha, Mangaluru City Police Commissioner