80% Thaneities actually prefer silent crackers

THANE: For a lot of us Diwali is synonymous with the sound of crackers and the best way to celebrate the festival is by lighting loads of noisy ones. However, this year, the trend has been different, thanks to the efforts of the NGOs and the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC). The fact that their efforts have paid off well is proven by the fireworks shop owners.They have claimed that around 80 per cent of the people who have come to their shops to buy crackers have preferred to not buy noisy ones.
City-based NGOs, TMC, Thane police and the social forestry department have initiated various awareness drives to keep the pollution levels low during Diwali. They have reiterated the message that the festival is all about exchanging of greetings, good wishes, gifts and sweets. Their efforts seem to have gone down well with the Thaneites as even though the city markets have stocked noisy crackers, people are veering more towards the soundless ones this year. In fact after observing this trend in the first few weeks among the shoppers, many shops and stalls across the city have not started stocking only soundless crackers.
"As there is an increasing awareness among people about noise pollution, people are becoming more sensitive towards the environment. They definitely prefer soundless crackers over the noisy ones. We've found that 80 per cent of the people who come to our shop go home with the soundless crackers," Vicky Tikmani, a shopkeeper with Krishna Stores in Thane (E).
Shrikant Bhoir, a Jambli Naka-based shopkeeper, also agreed with Tikmani. "Instead of buying double bars, bullet bombs, rassi bombs and long strings of noisy crackers, people are buying chakris, fountains and sparklers. Among the popular crackers this year are sparking chakri, wheel chakra and flora fountain. Almost every customer is now demanding these fancy crackers and so we have replaced our old stock twice in last two weeks and have now just stocked these fancy crackers," added Bhoir.
Though this trend has an upside, TMC's Pollution Control Officer Manisha Pradhan isn't too happy. "The fancy crackers, which are in demand this year, are noiseless and we are glad that they are becoming popular. But when we look at the other side of this trend, it is just as bad. These crackers cause considerable air pollution as they emit more pollutants," Pradhan explained.