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Pollution in Delhi NCR has crossed the new highs owing to all the sources except crackers

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By Arjun,10 November, 2020

For decades, bursting crackers during Diwali has been wrongfully and with the mala fide intentions attributed to for causing pollution but it’s far from truth. Delhi had the pollution problem for longest period but it wasn’t ever due to crackers burning but because of the industrial pollution, being in the vicinity of the international airport and the chief cause of pollution in the October to December which remained unknown recently is the paddy burning in masses across Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. It was in 2018 when paddy burning at scale was identified as the main cause of pollution which has spiked pollution in national capital region, which on 9th November 2020 crossed 420ppm making it the most polluted day of the season. Coincidentally Diwali used to fall mostly in the month of September - October because of which media used to attribute all the pollution to the crackers burning in Diwali which as now the truth as emerged, was never a main cause of pollution.

Decades long guilt trapping of Hindus (people practising Hinduism faith) by set of people who had the mala fide interests in blaming the Hindu’s main festival Diwali and therefore conditioning them to celebrate cracker-free Diwali or Green Diwali has made people stay ignorant about the main reasons of pollution and therefore the chief source of problem wasn’t ever fixed. Now that the COVID is here, and Diwali had fallen quite late from the usual pattern, the truth about the pollution has emerged. 

Guilt trapping of Hindus has been done so much that various brands have been doing all sorts of advertisements which wishes Happy Diwali and preaches not to cause pollution by bursting crackers. Bursting crackers, which is a global activity and is enjoyed by toddlers to adults alike is seen in India as a source of pollution only which results in minuscule amount of pollution as compared to any other activity such as going out for drive in cars, bikes which causes continuous pollution in the entirety of the drive time. If you are a non-vegetarian, you are contributing heavily to global warming but that stays out of purview when we talk about pollution.

Paddy burning usually steps in September and due to the wind flow, the smoke and dust particles are taken by wind towards Delhi NCR region causing a lot of pollution in the capital region. 

Pollution on 10th November even crossed 999 mark in many locations across Delhi showcasing that the paddy burning alone can contribute to pollution at such massive scale. All those reasoning about crackers causing this kind of pollution is now debunked.

 


Pollution has been in its prime 2 weeks prior to Diwali and on November 10 a new high was set. Seeing the upward trend we can assume that the pollution may set even higher mark but can be wrongfully attributed to Diwali by the people having mala fide intentions.

Residents of Delhi/ NCR are also producing more garbage than ever and gigantic garbage towers are located across the region, one of them is in Okhla Delhi and other one is in Gurgaon Faridabad Bypass road. Accidental fires of garbage mess are always an environmental threat as they can cause massive pollution in matter of hours. 

Some people are arguing that paddy burning is not the main source of pollution - well, all the protest and voice against the pollution has started only from October onwards which is when the paddy burning takes place in the regions. Also, Indian metros are pollution round the year but never have they witnessed such massive spikes in the pollution as in November which crossed all the highs a week before Diwali which wrongfully for decades have been targeted by hinduphobic and ignorant people and set of media outlet. 

Also, one of the reasons why paddy burning is the main source of pollution across Delhi NCR is that only this region has faced such massive spikes in the period and no where else in the country have anyone witnessed such spikes because that's over and above the usual industrial and vehicular emits. 

 

Trading off the pollution:

Do you understand that generation of electricity causes pollution? Most of the electricity we receive in India is generated through Thermal plants - large quantity of coal/ wood is burnt to generate the electricity. The resultant coal ash further leaks from the plants and becomes part of the air which is one of the components of the air that we breathe. We can reduce the amount of electricity we use on any particular occasion should you want to celebrate any festival which requires burning of crackers or lightening up the home. But no one should have audacity to preach what you must do or how to celebrate your festival.

Do you understand that driving vehicles emit large quantity of pollution? Do you go out for drives for leisure and fun? You are contributing to huge amount of pollution during every second of your journey. Do you take a flight for work/ leisure? Why can't you just video call instead? Flying through air has got large amount of carbon footprint. Stop doing that if you are preaching anyone to not burst crackers as they cause pollution. Crackers amounts to minuscule amount of pollution, 100 times more pollution is released by private vehicles during every second of the journey. 

Are you a non-vegetarian? You cause the massive amount of pollution as the non-vegetarian food has highest carbon footprint. Eating Lamb, Buffalo's meat, Pork, Turkey, Chicken, Tuna, Eggs have CO2 Kilos Equivalent of 39.2, 27, 13.5,12.2,10.9, 6.9, 4.8 which is also equivalent to driving 91miles, 63 miles, 28 miles, 25 miles,16 miles, 14 miles,11 miles (Source) respectively while you are also effectively killing the animals you are consuming and further blaming crackers for causing harm to the animals. That's called hypocrisy and you will only get shamed for doing that. There are many festivals which involves large scale of animals slaughtering and they are not being banned which causes horrendous amount of water pollution, air pollution, stacking up of flesh which can cause diseases and also huge amount of animal lives are lost too. Before expressing your concerns selectivity, you must voice against these activities before preaching anyone about how crackers are harmful for animals.

If you are celebrating a festival which causes some amount of bursting crackers and you are a vegetarian, well you are thousand times more carbon footprint friendly than your non-vegetarian counterpart who is not bursting any crackers. Do you forgo your private vehicles to trade-off for the day when you bursted crackers? You are more carbon footprint friendly than your pal who drives a Car or a bike quite recklessly, just about everywhere for pleasure round the year. Are you willing to use lesser amount of electricity for few days prior to your festival or are you generally a sensitive person who uses lesser AC? You are much better off than the person who is preaching you not to burst crackers while the person spends all the time in AC or uses electricity way more than the requirement. You can ask them all of these, however you don't need to as people loves to guilt-trap when they dislike others for whatever reasons as personal as why someone is happy and celebrating festivals with joy. Just be consciously aware that you are trading off the carbon footprint for one activity for another and you will be good and will become a more mature, eco-friendly human being.

Therefore, you can trade off the pollution causing activities, by doing one activity lesser than usual and doing the other rare activity more to keep the balance and enjoy the life's moments guilt-free and in more sustainable way. And anyone who preaches you otherwise isn't really your friend so maybe keep distance from them.

There are also fool activists who would target the low hanging fruits which is bursting crackers in this case as they are bursted for few hours in a whole year while they won't plan to/ file a PIL against vehicles/ paddy burning/ industrial emissions instead? Why do they have so much obsession with crackers only which results in minuscule amount of pollution which too gets settled down overnight while other sources are quite perpetual in nature and causes pollution round the year and has been causing pollution for decades now? 

Possibly because of their hindu-phobic nature as they have quite demonic views about Majoritarianism? Or they are just a hater.  

The question - Why crackers were banned and main sources of pollution weren't? 

 

Counters to the "Crackers will further worsen the air quality/ pollution"

minuscule addition to the topline doesn't makes it worse. Remove the other sources and the pollution caused by bursting crackers for few hours won't feel like anything at all. It's not the concentrated smoke but spread out one which gets spread, diluted and settled down quickly.

For just one day, Crackers (10%) just adds small percentage to the already massively polluted air due to the stubble burning and other industrial and vehicular emits (90% of the source) which happens whole year. All the efforts to remove a source which causes minuscule pollution for 2-4 hours only once in a year and not focus on all the sources which pollutes the air perpetually 24x7x365? Do you think that's being fair?

Cracker leads to minuscule smoke and adds small percentage to the already heavily polluted air which we are breathing in. Crackers were made a scapegoat and a low hanging fruits to blame. 

 

 

Stubble/ paddy burning has been done for decades and that has been the main cause of pollution. 

It's only recently that the stubble burning could be understood as the main reasons of pollution with the heatmaps being shared by NASA and Diwali falling very late, else again people would have targeted crackers and Diwali.

Visibility of 50m and lesser is even these days which proves that the crackers weren't the main cause of the eve of Diwali but it was due to the stubble burning and other usual industrial and vehicular emits.

All the efforts to remove a source which causes minuscule pollution for 2-4 hours only once in a year and not focus on all the sources which pollutes the air perpetually 24x7x365?

Do you think that's being fair?

About the crackers harming animals, have you seen any animal getting hurt personally? Many people like me have ensured that no dog or animal get hurt while bursting crackers. About others, few cases might have happened, agreed.

Have you hit any dog or animal by car? Many haven’t but minuscule percentage have — have you seen dead dog on the road?
Can we give up vehicles just because animals get killed by vehicles. if not, why are you thinking in a different way in this case.

Do you eat non-veg? Animal gets killed for that sure shot. 

All kinds of animals are killed - can you give up non veg? no? Don’t preach about animals getting harmed. Don’t be a hypocrite now.

Did you protest against any of these? Is it only cool to blame crackers and none of other more crucial factors?

During certain festivals, millions of animals are sacrificed — that’s a sure shot of millions of animals in a day or two leading to massive amount of loss of animal lives and pollution. Did you protest against that? Why not?

Can’t you just enjoy your festival guilt free? or will you be just be the subject of other’s opinion without having any voice of yourself. 

Let’s be reasonable.

People are busy protesting against assumed death and not for the sure shot death causing activities which happens round the year. 
 

There's no evidence that pollution caused by crackers wasn't miniscule. We all have already witnessed that the pollution is at its peak without crackers without bursted proving the point that crackers were never the source of this pollution which earlier were primarily blamed actively. 

Shameless people used to credit all the pollution in Delhi to crackers. Gone are the days when people could be misled by fake activists. Those are now proven to be ignorant as the truth as emerged that crackers weren't the reason behind the peak #pollution days in #Delhi but the paddy burning was. 

Those who prevents you from bursting crackers during #Diwali are haters. They are bullying you not to do things you have loved to do for decades and they have been guilt-trapping you.

We are here to counter their arguments so that you can celebrate your celebrate in peace.

We discovered some funny exchanges on Twitter too:

Diwali celebrations with crackers only have contributed minuscule percentage to the already heavily polluted air for just few hours which gets settled down overnight. Historically it's only been paddy/ stubble burning which have contributed heavily to the seasonal pollution happening in the months September - December which has been confused with the crackers bursting and therefore the illiterate and ignorant activists have voiced against Crackers. Crackers indeed became a scapegoat amidst the confusion and got banned but many educated and woke activists are now voicing against the most important sources of pollution which must be curbed. 

Day following Diwali was just another normal day without much pollution -

 

Level of #AirPollution is at par to the usual average which means that the pollution caused by crackers is minuscule as compared to other sources of #pollution which contributes heavily and are perpetual in nature. Also crackers' emissions gets settled down overnight.

 

Hypocrites

Air was already heavily polluted in the morning of Diwali when crackers weren't bursted yet. 

 

Hypocrites are like

 

Governments are taking proactive steps in controlling the pollution. Below are some tweets which showcases such steps:

 

Air level pollution reduces over night and we can observe that air is cleaner than ever in just 2 days. 

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