No plan to ban firecrackers: Environment minister Choubey tells Lok Sabha

Says SC had only come down on conventional fireworks, but had allowed green crackers that release fewer emissions

The union government has no plan to ban firecrackers, Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey told the Parliament on Monday.

“There is no proposal to ban firecrackers,” the minister said in Lok Sabha.

He added the Supreme Court had come down on the manufacturing and sale of conventional fireworks, but had allowed 'green' crackers whose particukate emissions were at least 30 per cent lower than conventional ones.

Green firecrackers are based on a new and improved formulation, and are designed to relaase fewer emissions than conventional ones, not only of particulate matter and but also of gases such as carbon dioxide.  

On whether green crackers have severely compromised the Air Quality Index in NCR, the minister said no such evidence exists.

October and November 2022 have been among the best for Delhi-NCR in respect of average AQI during the past seven years, the minister added.

Variations in concentrations in each year are highly dependent on meteorology, atmospheric boundary layers (mixing height), inversion, and the influence of sources (pollutants) other than firecrackers, Chaubey said.

Why the demand

Air pollution shortens average life expectancy in India--the world's second-most polluted country after neighbouring Bangladesh--by five years, relative to what the parameter would have been had the new stringent WHO norms been met, according to the 2022 Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) analysis.

Some areas of India have life expectancies much below the average, with air pollution shortening lives by almost 10 years in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, the world's most polluted city, the AQLI stated.

In the Indo-Gangetic plains of Northern India, 510 million residents, or nearly 40 per cent of India’s population, are on track to lose 7.6 years of life expectancy on average if current pollution levels persist. Residents of Lucknow stand to lose 9.5 years of their lives if pollution levels persist.

Residents of India have started recognising air pollution as a major health threat and the government is beginning to respond.

In 2019, the Government of India launched its National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), whose goal is to reduce particulate pollution by 20-30 per cent from 2017 levels, by the year 2024. The NCAP targets are non-binding. However, if India were to achieve and sustain this reduction, it would lead to remarkable health improvements.

According to the AQLI, a permanent, nationwide reduction of 25 per cent--the midpoint of NCAP’s target range-- would raise India’s average national life expectancy by 1.4 years, and by 2.6 years for residents of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.