Usually, revellers from Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka buy huge quantities of crackers manufactured in Sivakasi every year during the Chathurthi festival. According to T Kannan, general secretary, The Indian Fireworks Manufacturers Association (TIFMA), this amounts to about 20 to 30 per cent of the total production.

However, the business has not been as usual due to the restrictions imposed by the government to contain the spread of COVID-19, he told DT Next. Fearing coronavirus spread, the merchants did not turn up at Sivakasi, he added.

The pandemic and its aftermath have hit them so hard this year that the cracker industry there has been able to produce just 40 per cent of the usual output, with sales remaining at an even lower 15 per cent so far this year, he said.

Kannan added that the association has sought Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s intervention to ease restrictions on the occasion of Deepavali and let people enjoy bursting of crackers while following the regulations and restrictions.

Any restriction on Deepavali festival, which falls on November 14, would further affect the sector badly, added G Radhakrishnan, former president, TIFMA.

The restrictions on Chathurthi festival that falls less than a week from now has left the manufacturers with little hope of staging a comeback, he said, noting that they were now worried about the uncertainty over Deepavali.

AS Rajendra Raja, former secretary of TIFMA, said stocks of finished goods were piled up in godowns due to low demand. He was sceptical of demand picking up for crackers in the coming days this year.