Festivals Celebration should be for internal peace or should be for Environmental Degradation?

Festivals are an integral part of rich and diverse cultural heritage of our country. There are many types of festivals in the India. Though many have religious origins, others involve seasonal change or have some cultural significance. In every months many festival comes and fill colors in our life. The various festivals like Holi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Kanwar fair, Maa Durga Puja, Deepawali, Eid and Tazia are occasions for great joy and celebrations across the length and breadth of our country but with festival seasons come pollution. Various types of pollution like water, air, noise, soil and solid waste are generated in large amounts all across the country, thereby adding an even greater load pollutants and contaminants to our already polluted environment. While festivals are an occasion to celebrate with great pomp and show, spare a moment to go through this article before going out to buy a box of fire-crackers this Diwali. Loudspeakers, fire crackers and loud musical instruments, appear to be one of the biggest culprits of noise pollution during festivals in our country.

With the advent of urbanisation, people in the metros had to grapple with the problem of noise pollution in everyday living, and any kind of public celebration only aggravates this lurking issue. A study by World Health Organisation (WHO) and various researchers assert that noise pollution is not only a nuisance to the environment but it also poses considerable threat to public health. In residential neighbourhoods, the Supreme Court limits the noise levels to 55 decibels in the day and 45 decibels at night. The local authorities are here to maintain decorum during festivals but we as citizens should also be responsible enough to keep noise within permissible limits. Time and again people have violated these levels during different festivals. Despite being worldly-wise, we ignore the health impacts of incessant exposure to such high-decibel sounds. Due to various festivals in India, the environmental components such as air water, soil are going degrade. Festivals which are directly degrading the environment components should be minimize and we should adopt traditional things instead of harmful chemicals, toxicants, fire crackers, solid waste generation, noise inducers etc. Fire crackers used in Deepawali are full of toxicants on the other hand holi colours are full with heavy metals such as Mercury Sulphite, Copper Sulphate, Aluminium Bromide, Lead oxide etc. These toxic chemicals are very dangerous to not only human beings but to all the living creatures of ecosystem.

This article is not emphasis on religious point of view but for the protection and general awareness about Environment. We should decide that festivals should be for internal peace or for the environmental degradation.

By:- Mr. Anil Bisht
Head of Department Zoology
Uttaranchal (P.G.) College of Biomedical Sciences and Hospital