Fighting Pollution, Not Tradition

India doesn’t need another prohibition on fireworks; it needs a permanent, legally empowered Air Quality War Room to coordinate states, act pre-emptively, and protect citizens’ right to breathe

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Every year, we outlaw firecrackers but not apathy. Until India fights its pollution season like a national emergency, the air will only grow thicker

Every year, in late October, Diwalis spectacular lights begin to flicker against a dreary, grey sky.

In the northern plains, the joy of the season is increasingly obscured by a thick blanket of haze that arrives not after the festival but before the diyas are lit. India’s “air emergency” is no longer a post-Diwali tale; itis a prelude. This year, the national capital is already gasping as the Air Quality Index (AQI) reached the “severe” level in the first week of October.

The annual smog crisis is presented as a struggle against firecrackers. However, the truth is far more complicated—and far more uncomfortable. The festival of lights has become an annual litmus test for India’s environmental leadership. Fireworks are only a spark. The true fire is being fueled by legislative inertia, lax enforcement, a fragmented state response, and the absence of any cohesive, national emergency mechanism to address predictable seasonal pollution. Every winter, particularly in North India, dropping temperatures, standstill breezes, and temperature inversions trap pollution closer to the ground. However, unlike unexpected natural disasters, this isnot an unpredictable crisis. The causes are well understood: post-harvest stubble burning, unregulated construction dust, vehicular emissions, power plant smoke, industrial pollutants, and household biomass burning.