All you need to know about 'green crackers', their rules and implementation

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed 'green crackers' that include flower pots (anar), pencils, sparkles, and chakkar in anticipation of the festival season. Green crackers are environment-friendly, do not use harmful chemicals and are designed to reduce air pollution that causes health hazards

Air pollution has become an increasingly concerning factor lately, especially in north India, where it is being caused by both human activities and natural phenomena. Green crackers have been introduced to mitigate the impact of firecrackers during Diwali, which add to the air pollution burden.

In green crackers, commonly used polluting chemicals like aluminium, barium, potassium nitrate and carbon have either been removed or sharply reduced to to cull emissions by about 30 percent.

Notably, green crackers developed by the CSIR and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), help reduce particulate matter in the air by up to 40 percent.

Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan had proposed the idea of green firecrackers. In the first phase, green crackers will focus was on reducing pollutants and then further strategies will be developed to completely remove pollutants from the compositions.

The lab-developed green crackers have the unique property of releasing water vapour, air as a dust suppressant and diluents for gaseous emissions that match with the performance in sound with conventional crackers.

Green crackers exclude the metal barium, which is used in traditional firecrackers to add colour. Potassium nitrate, which is used as an oxidant, is also skipped or reduced in quantity to minimise particulatate matter emissions.

The cost of these crackers will be less or equal to the market value, according to the government. It has developed a green logo and a unique quick-response (QR) coding system to differentiate green crackers from the regular ones.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa gave in to public demand and allowed the sale and use of "green crackers" in the state on November 6 after banning the use of crackers entirely. Yediyurappa said to ensure the health and safety of persons infected with COVID-19 and those who are susceptible to suffer from respiratory distress, the Karnataka government will only allow the sale and use of green crackers.

The Uttarakhand government has permitted the sale of only green crackers in cities including Dehradun, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Haldwani, Rudrapur and Kashipur. It has fixed a time slot of 8 pm to 10 pm on Diwali and Gurpurab during which the crackers can be burst. On Chhath, green crackers can be used from 6 am till 8 am.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh announced a two-hour window for use of green firecrackers on Diwali and Gurpurab, with a curb for Christmas too across the state, except in Mandi Gobindgarh, where a total ban has been imposed from the midnight of November 9-November 10 till the end of the month on account of its poor air quality index (AQI) levels.

The Uttar Pradesh government has allowed the sale and use of green crackers in only those districts where air quality is 'moderate' or better.