48 hours after Diwali, Kolkata still under haze

KOLKATA: Two evenings of unbridled celebration with fireworks may have sullied the city’s air for this winter. Almost 72 hours after Kali Puja and 48 hours after Diwali when crackers released enough particulate matter in the air to envelop the city in a haze, the air refused to clear and AQI remained stubbornly above the 300-mark. Across the river in Howrah, the situation is no better.

Till the beginning of the week, the sky over Kolkata was clear and blue. But the twin celebrations over 48 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday have brought about a dramatic change with the sky turning murky grey. On Kali Puja evening, PM2.5 count dramatically shot up by 300%. The very next day on Diwali, it escalated by a further 40%.


“The problem with Kali Puja and Diwali is not only about bursting of fireworks but also the time when this festival is held. Usually, they are celebrated at the onset of winter when dispersal of pollutants is a problem,” said West Bengal Pollution Control Board chairman Kalyan Rudra.

“Though the extent and intensity of bursting firecrackers has been lesser this year, there is no denying that the Supreme Court order of maintaining a window of two hours for fireworks bursting was violated,” said green-crusader Subhas Dutta.

What has left environmentalists worried is high concentration of finer particulate matter PM2.5 in the air. For last few days, city’s AQI figure is mostly the average of PM2.5 count. “This is quite worrisome, with PM2.5 being the most prominent pollutant in the city’s ambient air,” said Somendra Mohan Ghosh, an environmentalist. “The weather condition will hold pollution closer to the ground and people will have to rush to doctors with severe respiratory troubles,” said Sudipta Bhattacharya, a scientist.

Times View

The 2018 push for less-noisy fireworks has thrown up one interesting fact: you cannot compensate for the lack of noise with more light. The best way forward would be to minimise the use of crackers altogether. Both citizens and government agencies need to learn from Kali Puja and Diwali 2018.