Diwali, another point of view.
Last month we celebrated the ‘X’ anniversary of the return of the first Indian lady who was abducted abroad. It is said that the husband of that lady killed the ten headed kidnaper. His return as a winner after exile of 14 years, along with his wife and brother, was moment to open bubbly for our progenitors. Hence, they observed this heyday, which is now celebrated years on end.
Diwali, in India is known as “the festival of lights”. It is
mainly celebrated on 13th and 14th day of dark half of
Kaartik month. It signifies triumph over the evil. Moreover, it brings in the joy
and happiness in our lives. Albeit Diwali is rooted in our culture, it is now a
pan-festival which helps to bind many bits and pieces of our society. It is
noisy, boisterous and fun. Entire country is all lit up with millions of little
clay lamps. Not only India, whichever part of the world Indians have stepped into,
they have taken the festival with them.
Another important aspect of Diwali is that its time of renewal: we
buy new clothes, prepare sweets, and clean homes. We also burn fire-crackers,
extra lightening is done and so on.
After these prodigal celebrations, have we ever thought what
impact did we make on the environment? Was every Indian was happy? What did we pass
onto our progenies? Let’s take a tour!!
For most of us, lightening of firecrackers is the prime event of
the day. Brighter
the sparkles, louder the noise the greater the thrill!! For us, decibels are
directly proportional to our respect. It is high time to realize that the temporary
fun is soon replaced by intense air pollution caused by them. The toxic
substances used in the firecrackers release toxic gases that are harmful to the
health of all living beings. Moreover, the high level of cause’s immense suffering
to birds and animals specially dogs. Besides, Diwali crackers are dreaded by
the sick and the ailing.
“I can still recall the day when one of my neighbors
had a heart failure on Diwali. It was on account of someone having burst a high
decibel bomb in front of him. It was an unfortunate incident and any one
can be victimized.
I feel pity to say that, hardly few
of us realize that the firecrackers are mostly made by young children of proletariat
class. Hence we propel them to die in their early teenage years.
Now, few intelligent philosophers of
lord Rama would claim that it’s a practice from Ramavtar. We celebrate his
victory. We light our homes in his remembrance. I would like to bring it to their
knowledge, that our progenitors burnt ‘Ghee’
diyas. This has a scientific significance after all. The fumes produced by
this, gets attached to the pollutants in the environment and then finally
settling down. But this has been replaced by artificial electrical products
which indeed add carbons to the environment.
We put extra light at our homes to attract goddess Lakshmi (I won’t be wrong if I use money instead). For some it is kind of competition, as if they are going to win a jackpot, for the brightest home. To their knowledge, India is an energy deficient country. Over 300 million Indian citizens had no access to electricity. Over one third of India’s rural population lacked electricity, as did 6 % of the urban population. Of those who had the access, the supply was intermittent and unreliable. Now calculate. We have fixed installed capacity, ie; generation cannot be increased. On the D day, our demand increases by almost 20-30 percent. This means, somewhere or the other populace is also deprived of it. Are we doing well? We feel very proud of ourselves when we see glowing Mother India’s photo on face book. Have we ever felt for the dark spots? Are we not self centered?
Today there is a lot hustle-bustle
about Eco-friendly Diwali or say pollution-free Diwali. And now, that we are so interested in
celebrating an Eco-Friendly Diwali, the first thing that we need to do is to
make ourselves aware of the effects of the traditional Diwali celebrations.
First let us take an example of Eco-friendly Diwali celebrated at TCS,
ILP Hyderabad. One thousand sky lanterns were set free in the sky. The cost
of each sky lantern was approx Rs 125. A sky-lantern is made up of some tissue
paper, paraffin wax. Paper as we know is becoming dearer to us every day. And
quoting the words of David Krause, an air quality engineer and former employee
of the Florida Department of Health- ‘the soot given off from the burning of paraffin
candles is the same as that given off by burning diesel fuel’. (Source: Healthy & Natural Journal, Oct,
2000 by Vicki L. Elmore). Moreover, it does cause pollution, what so
ever much we deny. I am not lampooning
anybody. But what I feel was that really necessary? Couldn’t we have had
spared a weekend to spent with some underprivileged children, who do not know
the meaning of light?
Last but not the least, an indirect
impact caused on the environment is due to increased consumption. Since Diwali is also a celebration
of abundance and wealth - many people believe that it is a good time to buy.
Often, people go out and buy new items even when they don't need them. For
instance, the metal (gold/silver) we buy on Diwali, comes from a mine that is
not only depleting the resources of the earth, but in the process of mining is
probably ruining several ecosystems. Examples will add on as we move.
This
article, tries to convince the sensitive readers towards celebrating an
environmentally safe Diwali by pointing out major impacts it has on
environment. It’s time to turn the corner. People need to understand that
bursting firecrackers is not trendy anymore.
I
know this will boil your blood for a while. But the conditions will remain selfsame. Thank you for reading the piece of shit. Go and make preparations for
next Diwali bash with some high decibels crackers!!
Datas referred from:-
NO COMMENT PLEASE.......
ReplyDelete