“This is not smog, this is fog that occurs every winter!” remarked one of the residents of Silver Oaks apartments when Shona Chatterji and Shalini Sahwney began their ‘Go Green Diwali’ campaign five years ago. It made the two realise that there was denial and low awareness about pollution from bursting fire crackers.
The two persisted with their campaign and this year the duo was rewarded with cent per cent success. “Though we had managed to convince a vast majority of the residents not to burst crackers during the sustained campaign over the years, a small fraction would continue to do it in the name of tradition. But armed with the Supreme Court order banning the sale of crackers, we managed to accomplish the dream of 'Green Diwali' this year with not a single cracker being burst in our society,” said Ms. Chatterji.
“It goes to show how a concerted and continued effort can yield positive and desired results. And how just two citizens can make a difference. As Shalini, my collaborator in this campaign, says ‘one plus one makes eleven’,” she said.
Doing one’s bit
Ms. Chatterji spoke of how they ran a poster campaign and another campaign on WhatsApp, educating residents. “We informed the residents that pollution out of just a day of bursting crackers lasted for weeks and adversely hit the health of the children and senior residents. We pointed out that pollution had to be fought on many fronts and crackers was one factor over which we had full control,” said Ms. Chatterji.
After the SC ban, Gurugram saw lesser noise and air pollution this Diwali, but the impact was felt more in group housing societies where resident activists were running a campaign against crackers and air pollution for long. “The fact that several big townships that saw no campaigns against crackers, saw bursting of crackers... shows that awareness has a greater role to play than a legal ban,” said Ruchika Sethi, who runs “Why Waste Your Waste” campaign.
