13-year-old chronic asthmatic wants a law banning the bursting of firecrackers during Deepawali, which, she insists is a festival of light and not noise or pollution.
Sanjna Chaturvedi, an eighth standard student at a school in the City, along with her friends, has even planned to write to the Union Minister for Environment and Forests to pass a law in favour of controlled use of firecrackers during any celebration, especially Deepawali.
Sanjna has spent many Deepawali days either recuperating on an ICU bed or forced to leave the City to escape the noise and pollution. She is spending this Deepawali too at Bidadi in Ramanagara district.
“In 2009, she had a severe asthma attack during the festival and was in hospital for more than three days,” said her grandfather Hari Rao. “Looking at her condition, we were, in fact, anxious we would lose her.”
Sanjna adds that bursting crackers has never excited her. “It was probably because I used to have asthmatic attacks, after inhaling the smoke from the crackers. In addition to the noise pollution, crackers are one of the causes for the greenhouse effect,” she says.
“There are regulations all over the world, except in India, on bursting crackers.
Community celebration, where firecrackers are burnt in open spaces, is a good idea,” she feels.
This year, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has taken efforts to visit a couple of private and international schools to educate children about the harmful effects of bursting crackers. The Board members have also visited the schools during the morning assembly and encouraged the children to pledge that they would not burst crackers.
An official of the KSPCB said that they managed to get pledges from over six lakh students. “Unlike government schools, the children here are mainly students of ICSE or CBSE syllabus.
Their curriculum includes a lesson on the harmful effect of firecrackers on the environment. It is therefore easier for us to explain to them and make them understand the matter,” the official added.