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Delhi residents woke up on Tuesday to heavy grey haze darkening the city skies, reduced visibility and the air quality in the ‘red zone’ after many celebrated Diwali the previous night by bursting firecrackers beyond the two-hour limit set by the Supreme Court. Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was ‘severe’, reaching up to as much as 447 on Tuesday morning.
Several Bollywood celebrities have flagged the high AQI and condemned the relentless use of crackers in not only Delhi, but around the country. Mira Rajput, entrepreneur and wife of actor Shahid Kapoor, took to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday and wrote, “Why are we still bursting crackers? It’s not okay even if it’s ‘just for the kids to see once’ or ‘we’re just doing it once for them to have the experience.'”
Mira and Shahid are parents to two kids — daughter Misha, 9, and son Zain, 7. “Neither is it okay for your pataka aesthetic to hold a phuljhadi for the gram. Let’s please stop normalising this. If we normalise it so will our kids and this will never stop. ‘Say no to crackers’ cannot be the poster you get your kids to make for Earth Day and then forget about it when Diwali comes along,” she added.
She argued that AQI is not just “news for the next Instagram story,” but the very “air our children breathe.” “This is not a tradition I wish to indulge in. And what’s sad is despite the privilege, education, awareness and affluence, what lacks is common sense. So no, I won’t send my kids to watch while you’ll have some cracker fun. Please stop,” added Mira.
Actor Vaani Kapoor also took to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday. “Woke up to Delhi’s AQI touching 447, one of the highest in the world today. Maybe next year, we find a way to celebrate without dimming the air we breathe (sparkle emoji).” An AQI between 0 and 50 is ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’,” wrote Vaani.
The Supreme Court had allowed the use of green firecrackers in Delhi-NCR between 8 pm and 10 pm on Diwali, which was celebrated on Monday. However, many flouted the court directions, with celebrations continuing late into the night. The air quality is expected to further slip into the ‘severe’ category more widely on Wednesday.
In Delhi-NCR’s neighbouring parts of Haryana and Punjab, the AQI is ‘Very Poor’ around the 382 mark, which suggests the condition in the national capital will only worsen further. If Delhi is going down the ‘severe’ path, Mumbai isn’t far behind either. A thick layer of smog blanketed the Bandra area of Mumbai on Wednesday morning, with the AQI recorded at 300 in the ‘Poor’ category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board.
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