PPT-11
Green Earth Movement
An E-Newsletter for the cause of Environment, Peace, Harmony and Justice
Remember - “you and I can decide the future”
HAPPY
GREEN
DIWALI
DIWALI or DEEPAWALI , THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHT
is celebrated by Indians throughout the world in a joyous
mood, with zeal and enthusiasm. We all enjoy colorful
display of lights, crackers, sweets, shopping, happiness. The
festive spirit brings people of different communities closer, to
celebrate the vibrant festival in the most blissful and lively.
On Diwali night, little clay lamps are lit in homes of Hindus. It
is through the light that the beauty of this world is revealed
or experienced. Most civilizations of the world recognize the
importance of light as a gift of God. It has always been a
symbol of whatever is positive in our world of experience.
To Hindus, darkness represents ignorance,
and light is a metaphor for knowledge.
Therefore, lighting a lamp symbolizes the
destruction, through knowledge, of all
negative forces
-wickedness, violence,
-lust, anger, envy,
-greed, bigotry,
-fear, injustice,
-oppression and
-suffering, etc.
Though Diwali is a festival
of lights symbolising triumph
of good over evil, today like
many other festivals, Diwali
has become a festival of
noise and pollution.
Something common to the
festival of lights all over the
country is fire crackers. The rockets illuminating
the skies with multicoloured bursts, the noisy sizzle
of fiery chakris (ground wheels), ear-deafening
'bombs' and dazzling phooljhadis (sparklers)… etc.
The real meaning of bursting crackers seems to have been
lost to a great extent as grand fireworks have become a
status symbol for the vulgar display of ill-gotten wealth for
the rich and others are either cowed down by their sheer
money and muscle power and blindly follow them. For them
it has become fashionable to
use fireworks in a manner that
causes maximum distress and
annoyance to people with scant
disregard to the impact it has on
environment. With pollution
levels in most of our cities
already in the danger zone little do people realize that
fireworks make way for toxic substances that enfold the
atmosphere which are deleterious to the health of all living
beings.
When the young and strong, rich and
wealthy enjoy bursting crackers to their
heart’s content, there are so many other
living beings,
Including
humans suffer
immensely.
Following are
few examples:
The pain and
suffering infants
undergo during the
Diwali days is
unimaginable.
These little ones
have no way to express their fear and
pain of bearing with the ear-deafening
crackers and other fireworks except the
language of cries and laments. Worst still
the flight of little babies.
Do we know what must be going on in the minds
of the elderly, sick and the homebound during the
Diwali days? While the young and the strong will
be enjoying every bit of
celebration like bursting of
crackers, the elderly, sick and
the homebound must be
silently praying for God’s
strength to bear with the pain
and suffering. They have no
other way but to pray,
because, no one is in a mood to
listen to their pain and agony .
Diwali, the festival of lights and sweets, is also the
time when asthma patients suffer from exposure to
smoke. "I see 15 to 20
Patients with spasms of
asthma on Diwali day, as
against four or five on other
days," says Dr M Manimaran,
pulmonologist and allergist.
According to him, the trigger
for the attack is heavy smoke from crackers like
chakras, sparklers and snake tablets. "Children
between the ages of six and 12 are particularly
susceptible to the attack during Diwali," he added.
The act of bursting of
crackers itself if fraught
with dangers to
humans. Hundreds
of people, especially
youngsters get injured
in the process of
bursting crackers, and even deaths. Safdarjung
Hospital has one of the largest burn care facilities in
India. This facility receives the largest number of
firecracker-related injury patients throughout the
year. However, it almost takes the form of an
epidemic during Diwali. This unit runs a special
disaster management protocol around Diwali.
Catching fire to the firecracker shops is very common. There
are many instances of loss of life and limb due to the fire
accidents. E.g. read this news “Fajjupur village in Dhariwal
sub-division of this district in Punjab. About 0430 hrs, three
women were killed when a powerful explosion tore through
a house where firecrackers were being made illegally. The
blast also injured seven people, including a child. The blast
was so powerful that five
other houses in the vicinity
caught fire and collapsed
due to its impact. About ten
people were still trapped in
the debris of the houses. Fire
Fighters were trying to rescue
them. 8.1.2011
Diwali may be all about fireworks and fun for
people, but it's not the same for birds and
animals. Dogs and cats cower in fear as birds
spend a sleepless nights on their perches, with
some even falling victim to the rockets and airborne firecrackers.
A.P. Activists
campaigning against
the bursting of noisy
crackers say that each
year post Diwali
thousands of pigeons
are found dead
on the roads of Charminar, Koti, Sultan
Bazaar, Nampally railway station,
Chilkalguda, Begumpet and several other
areas, unable to bear the high-pitched
explosions.
What about cows, sheep, buffalos, pigs etc?
These innocent animals contribute so much for
human beings. During the
Diwali days, these animals
suffer silently without even
able to express their fear
and pain. There are even
instances of death
of cows, buffalos etc when
they run helter skelter when
they hear the sound and
noise of loud crackers.
Fireworks not only harm humans and animals, but even
Mother Earth including trees, soil, water, air and so on.
The fireworks get their flamboyance from a variety of
chemicals, many of which are toxic to humans. From the
gunpowder that fuels their flight to the metallic
compounds that color their explosions, fireworks often
contain carcinogenic or
hormone-disrupting
substances that can seep
into soil and water, not to
mention the
lung-clogging smoke they
release and plastic debris
they scatter.
Addition to the harmful
effects of bursting of
fireworks on humans,
animals and Mother Earth,
this industry also perpetuates
social evils like child labour.
For example – Sivakasi in
Tamil Nadu state, about
45,000-50,000 children are
employed in the fireworks industry. These children earn
about 15-18 rupees a day on piece-rates. When an inspector
visits a factory, child workers are bundled into store-rooms
and sheds. When asked if the long hours deprived her of the
pleasures of childhood, 12-year-old Kavitha gave a resigned
look. When asked if she would like to go to school like other
girls, she shot back: "Who will feed me, then?“
Besides all the above harm done due to the
bursting of firecrackers, hundreds of crores of
rupees are splurged on crackers. Are we doing
justice to our Motherland and Mother Earth?
(see next slide a comment by a reader of a web portal)
NISHANT GAURAV, BANGALORE COMMENTS TO AN
ARTICLE ON DAIJIWORLD.COM:
Diwali is a festival of lights not sound. I feel pity on the
people, birds and other animals who cannot bare these loud
sounds. People enjoy bursting crackers but in their
enjoyment they totally forget the world! .The people who
like to burst crackers should burst them at an extent but not
more than that.. It spoils the life of birds and animals but also
our beloved trees. They do not speak anything but inside
deep they die.. .first of all there is lot of pollution due to the
vehicles that give out poisonous gases and top of that if we
still try to extend the level of pollution by bursting these
crackers our world will be in danger or may be it is....... my
request to all cracker lovers is that to reduce the bursting of
crackers as MUCH AS POSSIBLE....[contd..]
JUST REMEMBER THOSE BIRDS ,THOSE INNOCENT PEOPLE ,THOSE
TREES AND THOSE ANIMALS WHO CANT BARE THE SOUND AND
POLLUTION OF THE CRACKERS THEY BURN.....
INSTEAD OF SPENDING THOUSANDS OR MAY BE LAKHS!... IN
BUYING CRACKERS ONE CAN FEED THE NEEDY...OR CAN USE FOR
THEMESELVES FOR OTHER PURPOSES...
THE TREES, PLANTS.., BIRDS ..ETC ARE ALSO THE PART OF OUR
SOCIETY... HENCE ONE SHOULD NOT ENJOY INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY
AT COST OF ALL THESE...
BURNING CRACKERS IS NOTHING BUT BURNING OUR OWN
MONEY, BURNING OUR OWN HARD WORK WHICH DOES NOT
COME EASILY....
REGARDING ALL THESE POINTS ONE SHOULD LIMIT THE USE OF
CRACKERS …………...... THANKYOU
I WISH THE WHOLE INDIA A HAPPY AND SAFE AND OF COURSE A
CRACKER FREE DIWALI.......
(Courtesy: daijiworld: October 24, 2011)
See questions for groups discussion later
This educational PowerPoint Presentation (editable) is
prepared by GEM Team (courtesy: internet).
For other similar GEM PowerPoint Presentations on various
environmental issues see next slide.
These PPTs may be downloaded from our website
www.stfrancisxavierpanvel.in
The GEM PPTs can be creatively used for various groups
like school/college students, NGOs, government officials,
Church groups, SCC groups, housing society members
and so on.
Zero Garbage
Solar Energy
Junk Food
Twenty Tips To Save Nature
Plastic – a boon or bane?
Green Passion
Soft drink – A Health Hazard
Waste to energy
Rain Water Harvesting
Eco-friendly Religions
Happy Green Diwali
Climate Change
The future of Biodiversity
Genetically Modified Foods
Waste Water Treatment
Give thanks, Give Life (Body,
Organ, Tissue Donation)
Organic Farming
Waste to cooking gas
Reduce, Reuse. Recycle
Protect Mangroves
Say NO to Bottled water
Save Lakes and Ponds
Forests are green lungs
Coal Mining and Ecology
Sin of Food Waste
Climate change and Poverty
Stop Water Pollution
Carbon Footprints
Parks and Open Spaces
Rising Sea Levels
For Free Weekly GEM E-Newsletters visit –
www.stfrancisxavierpanvel.in – every
Friday. Go to GEM section,
click GEM E-NEWSLETTERS