Officials to begin crackdown to enforce green crackers rule in Karnataka

After a 3-hour long meeting chaired by Forest and Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre, KSPCB issued a circular that gave detailed instructions to the deputy commissioners, police, health and other officials at the local governments.

Bengaluru: Buying crackers in the run up to Deepavali? Make sure that they are certified as 'green' as officials will soon begin a crackdown across the state to enforce the Supreme Court order on green crackers.

The KSPCB on Monday directed district administration and the line departments to enforce the Supreme Court's order on green crackers and enforce a strict ban on the crackers containing harmful chemicals in order to prevent pollution in the festival days.

After a 3-hour long meeting chaired by Forest and Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) issued a circular that gave detailed instructions to the deputy commissioners, police, health and other officials at the local governments.

Accordingly, a task force comprising officials from all the relevant departments as well as members of the civil society will begin random inspection of the storage facilities as part of a crackdown on illegal crackers flowing into the state.

"All the green crackers are certified with a logo and QR code. The same needs to be verified by the district environment officer. Any crackers without the logo and QR code are not considered green crackers. The same needs to be seized," the circular said.

The circular also directed the district-level teams to collect random sampling of the green crackers, test the same in the lab and seize those that do not conform to the court rules.

"As part of the enforcement, awareness programmes will be held across the districts. We want people to celebrate the festival in a safe and environmentally friendly way," Khandre told the media.

What are 'green' crackers?

On October 23, 2018, a Supreme Court bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan banned all crackers that do not conform to the improved standards.

The 'improved' crackers are those that will have less unburnt or partially combusted material, avoid use of ash to cut particulate matters (PM) by 15-20 per cent, low emission sound and light emitting which will further reduce PM by 30-35 per cent, significant reduction of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, reduce use of aluminium (produces brilliant white sparkles) and total ban on use of barium salts (produce green colour) that emit poisonous gas.