Kolkata had a blast, literally, on Kali Puja and Diwali night in violation of all norms and there is nothing unofficial about the complaint.
Several sets of official data, accessed from the Central Pollution Control Board and the West Bengal Pollution Control Board, confirmed that the bursting of crackers reached a crescendo around midnight on Sunday and continued till the wee hours of Monday, causing severe high noise and air pollution.
Green activists alleged that the administration remained largely ineffective despite the Supreme Court’s 2018 order banning all kinds of crackers barring “green” ones and that too only from 8pm to 10pm on Diwali night being violated. They expressed concern that the same might happen during Chhath Puja — which falls on ???? this year — unless the administration takes action.
State pollution control board officials admitted that there was large-scale violation of cracker norms during Diwali night and that the bursting of crackers increased after the 10pm deadline, blaming people for their “lack of awareness”.
The Plurals travels across the country the city on Diwali night and spoke to a wide spectrum of people, including government officials, to find out how the pollution had shot up and why and who were responsible for the Diwali night violation.
Pollution hit peak at midnight
Both noise and air pollution reached a high close to midnight and started to settle down only around 3am, according to official data that confirms the midnight mayhem.
Data accessed by The Plurals shows that most of the stations recorded very high decibel levels, often much higher than the maximum permissible national limits, around midnight. Several stations actually recorded either higher or similar noise levels compared to what was recorded at the same places around 10pm.
Bagbazar in north Kolkata recorded 88.9 decibels around 12.30am, while the level was 76 decibels around 10pm. Similarly, Patuli, a residential area off the EM Bypass, rose to 68.1 decibels after midnight, while it was 29 decibels at 10pm. The limit for residential areas during night time, i.e. after 10pm, is 45 decibels and a 10-decibel increase in noise actually doubles the pressure on ears.
New Market and Tollygunge, both designated commercial areas, recorded 84.8 and 84.5 decibels respectively at 12.30am against the national limit of 55 decibels.
Animals are among the worst sufferers of the Diwali noise menace
Even hospitals — designated silence zones with a blanket ban on bursting of fireworks within a 100-metre radius — were not spared. The noise around RG Kar Hospital ranged from 61 to 63 decibels between 8pm and 12.30am. The average ambient noise level of SSKM Hospital was around 51.5 decibels from 10pm to 12.30am. The national maximum permissible limit at night time is 40 decibels.
Air pollution data reflected similar trends. The level of PM 2.5, the ultrafine particulate matter that is considered the most toxic pollutant as it can penetrate to the deepest crevices of the lungs and trigger a bevy of diseases, many of them fatal, shot up sharply from evening to midnight.
The average of PM 2.5 in Kolkata at 8pm on ???? was 72.3 micrograms (mg) and rose to 306.6mg at midnight, continuing to spiral upwards till 2am (306mg) before gradually dropping and reaching 105.7mg at 5am.
Complaints received by the state pollution control board and green platform also corroborated the data.
Rise of maximum noise level was the trigger
The sudden rise in noise level caused by fireworks from 90 decibels to 125 decibels a few days before Diwali was the trigger behind the upsurge of cracker bursting this year, alleged activists. Several state government officials admitted the allegations in private.
“West Bengal had been a model in the country since the 1990s as it continued with the 90-decibel maximum limit compared to the rest of the country and it was repeatedly upheld by several courts. However, since WBPCB recently increased the level to 125 decibels suo motu, referring to a five-year-old Supreme Court order; the state government was no more serious to contain the noise and the violators felt encouraged,” said Biswajit Mukherjee, former chief law officer of the West Bengal Pollution Control Board.
Illegal fireworks dominated
Illegal fireworks with fake QR codes and containing barium were sold at the bazi bazars set up by the state government, The Plurals found. Most of the fireworks were brought from Sivakasi as local production was minimal.
“You can well imagine if that was the situation in markets set up by the government, what would have happened in retail shops set up in the city suburbs and also in the districts, where there was hardly any monitoring,” said green activist Naba Dutta from Sabuj Mancha.
“In Siliguri, we found fireworks with fake QR codes being sold everywhere,” said Animesh Bose from non-profit HNAF.
The Sabuj Mancha team found that some students bursting fireworks, most of them illegal, on the NRS Hospital campus.
High-rises hotbeds of violation
The Plurals team, on ground on Diwali night, found that while the main thoroughfares were largely spared, violations were routine and frequent in lanes and bylanes with high-rises being the hotbed of violation.
Areas such as Santoshpur, Behala, Parnasree, Ballygunge, Tollygunge, Baguiati, Bangur, Phoolbagan, Bhowanipore and Alipore were found to be the hot spots.
“The comparative high cost of green fireworks and relative non-availability of local fireworks meant that the affluent section of the society was mainly responsible for the violations,” a WBPCB official said.
“In my area, the violations mostly happened in high-rises,” admitted a senior officer from a south Kolkata police station.
“We also found that high-rises were the hotbeds of violation with bursting of shells and other fireworks taking place on rooftops,” said a representative of a green platform.
It was also found that slums, usually violation zones, remained largely silent this year.
No regulations on ground
Police were found not acting on the ground to nab violators even in and around hospitals, leave alone other areas. In earlier years, the police were often found to chase and arrest violators in case of repeated violations but none of that seemed to have happened this year.
WBPCB was hardly better. Though it had several mobile teams on the ground and flew three drones in the city to identify violators, the exercise remained largely theoretical.
“There was no action because nobody wanted to act,” a green activist said.
