We have been talking about CNY for two weeks. I think it is time to turn our focus on some other “International Pollution Days” practiced by other cultures. This week, we will talk about an Indian festival, Diwali.
Diwali is arguably the biggest festival celebrated by Indian people all over the world. In Singapore, it is also known as Deepavali and “the festival of lights”. It has thousands of years of history and is believed to be the day when light chases out darkness and good beats evil. Being a religious festival, many traditions are being practiced during the festival period. Every year, people would gather with their families and have feasts. Numerous small oil lamps called Diya are lightened up while Indian people prey to their gods. In Large cities like Mumbai and Delhi, firecrackers and fireworks are burnt, pushing the celebration to its climax.
Diwali Festival (Khokarahman, 2014)
Yes, firecrackers and fireworks again. They seem to be essential in almost all celebrations around the world. However, in places like Delhi where the ambient air quality is already low, and home to over 30 million people, the risk of air pollution due to fireworks is inevitably exacerbated. It is shown that last year, the air quality of Delhi in 4 out of 5 days of the Diwali festival period was marked by “very poor” with AQI exceeding 300 (Zaffar, 2002). Fireworks pollutant is a combination of toxic gases such as SO2, NOx, and ozone, with PM2.5 being the most harmful (BBC news, 2022). A report done by the New Indian Express (2021) found that after Diwali, hospitals in Delhi experienced an increase in patients with respiratory illness by two to three folds. Within the patients, the elderly are the most vulnerable and receive the heaviest impact. Why is that so? My hypothesis is that covid-19 situation was worsened by air pollution. Air pollutants made people more susceptible to covid infection and they (virus and pollutants) collectively did greater damage to people’s respiratory system.
Smog in Delhi (Prami.ap90, 2019)
Other forms of pollution associated with Diwali include the release of excessive CO2. Carbon footprint of Diwali mainly comes from two sources, diya lamps, and electrical lights. Every, there are millions if not billions of diya lamps being lightened up in India. This releases a huge amount of CO2 into the atmosphere, causing many problems. Furthermore, during the festival of light, cities would light up electrically for the entire night. Such prolonged light display consumes much energy and as a result, releases CO2. There are now trends in India that uses LED lights as replacements for diya lamps as LED is supposed to have a higher energy efficiency than oil lamps, thus reducing carbon footprint. Yet, this leaves another form of pollution unresolved.
Diwali celebrates the victory of light over darkness, which is a good metaphor religiously and ideologically. However, apart from the auspicious meaning of light, is light inherently a good thing? As an environmental pollution student, I tend to say no. Light pollution is a serious problem around the world. Excessive light during the night is proven to cause illnesses like stress build-up in human bodies (National Geographic, n.d.). More importantly, light pollution disturbs natural ecological cycles. Light at night can drastically affect animal behavior – an important feature in the ecosystem. For example, light makes nocturnal animals easily spotted by their prey and predators, affecting the predation ecology. Diurnal species, similar to humans, wake up due to light from cities. All of these will disturb the ecosystem and cause biodiversity loss as a result.
Light pollution (Mike Knell, 2006)
Thank you for reading this post! Next week, we will continue talking about other Indian festivals and their effects.
References:
BBC news. (2022). Delhi air: How Much Pollution Does Diwali Cause? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46138064
National Geographic. (n.d.). Light Pollution. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/light-pollution
The New Indian Express. (2021). Doctors Say Severe Respiratory Cases on Rise in Delhi amid Hazardous Air Pollution Levels. https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/delhi/2021/nov/14/doctors-say-severe-respiratory-cases-on-rise-in-delhi-amid-hazardous-air-pollution-levels-2383570.html
Zaffar, H. (2022). Diwali Festival Pollution Worsens Delhi’s Winter Smog. https://www.fairplanet.org/editors-pick/diwali-festival-pollution-worsens-delhis-winter-smog/