Look beyond the fireworks-AQI axis

Firecrackers are a problem but they are not the only factor leading to air pollution. Banning firecrackers is a knee-jerk act

That the Air Quality Index (AQI), a complex measurement in a single unit of various pollutants in the atmosphere, was tracked closely on Thursday-Friday as the nation celebrated Diwali with firecrackers tells the growing significance – and correlation – to the festival. There was a time when people celebrated Diwali across India, even in the northern states, with loads of firecrackers taking the head off nights but no one worried about air pollution as much. This is not to suggest that we roll back to that time but to seriously – and fairly – consider the impact of firecrackers on the air we breathe given the thick layer of smog in almost every city and town across the country but none worse than Delhi-NCR and Punjab-Haryana.