Citizens seem to have finally realised that Diwali is peaceful and joyous with sparklers and starry firecrackers rather than earth-shattering bombs. A combination of events and efforts made this happen. Would other cities follow suit and make Diwali a festival of light and joy in the years to come?

My article on the “Politics of Noise” of 27th 2011 (See: Politics of noise or how norms are drowned in the cacophony) preceded the ‘Navaratri’, ‘Eid’ and Diwali festivals I, had mentioned that I would be writing in the run-up to these festivals. “Politics of Noise” was to cover the Shiv Sena ‘Dussehra’ annual traditional public rally at Shivaji Park, followed by the harmful effects of bursting firecrackers. Now both the events are over and there is bad news and good news.

The bad news is that the Bombay High Court permitted holding of the Shiv Sena rally on ‘Vijaya Dashami’ on the condition that it observed the Noise Rule—and Shiv Sena, as expected, flouted the Noise Rule for the second year in succession. This event will have to be covered separately so that by next year’s ‘Vijaya Dashmi’, certain norms would have been formulated and the noise rule in its principle would not get violated. The latest news is that the play “Janata Raja” has been granted permission, again by the Bombay High Court on 21st October, to perform before an audience of 6,000 plus in December this year. The organisers are reported to have planned a distributed speaker system to keep the noise level within the limits of law. I think, acoustics experts and academic institutions like IIT Bombay must be commissioned to verify the design before permitting this play to be held. There is no need to say that ‘this time also it failed the test’.

Now, it is time to actually celebrate the good news. The good news is that the citizens of Mumbai have finally decided to lessen the noise emanating from firecrackers. This has not only been reported in most newspapers, but has been personally so observed by me at my residence in Babulnath near Chowpatty, south Mumbai. Marine Drive, which would witness bursting of noise- and smoke-emitting firecrackers well past midnight all these years, seems to have complied by and large with the noise rules.

I did travel on the nights of ‘Dhanteras’ or ‘Laxmi Pujan’ and ‘Bhau Beej’ and observed a peaceful atmosphere by and large with sporadic bursting of loud firecrackers on ‘Dhanteras’. ‘Bali Padawa’ and ‘Bhau Beej’ evenings/nights were exceptionally quiet, perhaps due to low traffic on the road. Yes, to some extent ‘Dhan Teras’ and Diwali had loud firecrackers but on the whole, post 10PM, the neighborhood had become very quiet.

But that was not the case everywhere. At different sections of Mumbai, I am told firecrackers were being burnt disregarding either the decibel norms or the 10 PM deadline. Going by the newspaper reports and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and NGO Awaaz Foundation observations, the noise levels were definitely perceptibly lower than previous years.

How did this happen?

The foremost to get credit for this is the inclusion of Environment Sciences as a subject in schools from 5th standard. Awareness grows among parents while ‘teaching’ their children and when children do aspire to not pollute the atmosphere with noise or foul air, parents do become wiser and oblige.

Then I would say that the oath the school children and college students take voluntarily not to burst crackers because they cause noise and air pollution and are bad for health. This oath was prepared by Dr YT Oke, the person responsible for getting Noise Pollution Rules coming into existence and propagated through the Marathi Vidnyan Parishad and Association of Medical Consultants, Mumbai. It’s being readily available on this website [See: https://sites.google.com/site/noiserelated/oath-for-students-in-schools-colleges-for-diwali-2010) and has helped matters considerably.

The media cannot be far behind in being given credit as they have been putting forth articles on the subject in advance of not only Diwali, but also ‘Dussehra’ and ‘Ganapati’ festivals when in large proportion loudspeakers were being used, even beyond the 10pm deadline or 12 midnight on specified dates.

Thus awareness on harmful effects of bursting of firecrackers has led to significant reduction in overall noise and air pollution, especially people’s adherence to the time deadline.

Without enforcement, violators, however small in number, continue to be daring and violate the rule of law. This leads others to also ignore the rule. Therefore it is of utmost importance that the public is informed of the Rule of Law and that Government would take stern measures against violators.

However, in a stakeholders’ meeting convened by the Department of Environment of Government of Maharashtra a fortnight before last year’s Diwali (2010), the Government took a soft stand on manufacturers’ plea that they were not aware of restrictions of a firecracker’s noise-emitting levels and that they were to put down the noise levels of a firecracker on the package. The government had also not placed any advertisements in the newspapers warning public of stern action against violators of noise rules. Since the awareness campaign has been going on over the years, very strongly from 2003, it is a fallacy that the firecracker manufacturers and retailers did not know about the limits of noise a cracker could emanate. I did mention these in the meeting and followed it up with an email to all concerned. The result is that Government of Maharashtra, through different channels of communication, including SMS like “Let us take pledge to avoid crackers, avoid air & noise pollution” by the MPCB, conveyed the importance of avoiding lighting firecrackers. The Minister of Environment participated in a TV debate on the subject with the Deputy Environment Minister making media statements that violators would be punished, including imprisoned if so necessitated. Police stated that they would be monitoring the 10 PM deadline strictly. One of the English newspapers in fact went on a campaign “VOLUME KAM KAR” for over ten days, while other news papers did this little less vigorously. Several TV channels held a debate on the subject.

All these efforts could be attributed to have contributed to the significant drop in noise and air pollution. For the coming year, the Environment Department should, in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Government and the firecracker manufacturer’s association and retailer’s association ensure that (a) no child is employed with these hazardous manufactures and (b) do not manufacture firecrackers that make noise exceeding the specified limits and also get them printed on the labels.

MPCB must also identify those hand-held firecrackers that emit smoke in concentration that is harmful, especially to children. The health department must loudly emphasise the harm noise and smoke causes to infants and to the newborn; many parents in their enthusiasm do not realise this. In fact protection of infants from noise must be told to every parent at every time of childbirth.

With growing awareness, I am optimistic that we shall celebrate future festivals with peace and joy; but it is still no time to stop efforts to contain noise and air pollution.

[Sudhir Badami is a civil engineer and transportation analyst. He is on the Government of Maharashtra's Steering Committee on Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) for Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority's (MMRDA) technical advisory committee on BRTS for Mumbai. He is also member of the Research & MIS Committee of Unified Mumbai Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMMTA). He was a member of the Bombay High Court-appointed erstwhile Road Monitoring Committee (2006-07). He has been an active campaigner against noise pollution for over a decade and he is a strong believer in a functioning democracy. He can be contacted on email at [email protected].]