Lighthouse

Author(s): Udayvallabhvijay
Publisher: Pragna Prabodh Parivar

Page 77

crackers get mixed with water making it non-potable. These particles reach the subsoil water also and contaminate it. Mostly, crackers are burst on public roads. These roads are meant for movement of pedestrians and vehicles. When crackers are burst on roads the attention gets diverted due to the loud noise, the smoke and sometimes even fear and these result in accidents also. Sometimes, the noise of a fire cracker is so loud that it may lead to permanent deafness also. The guidelines issued by the Central Pollution Control Board of India restricts the noise volume up to 125 decibel at the distance of 4 feet from the place of bursting of the cracker. However, people standing away at three times this distance i.e. 12 feet or more, experience much louder decibel than the prescribed one.
The loud noise, the sparks, the colourful explosion may give momentary enjoyment to the person bursting a cracker. However, these things create tremors of fear in the minds of thousands of birds and small animals/creatures. The message that 'humans are not the only occupants of this universe' needs to be spread repeatedly. Bursting of crackers many a times results in bizarre accidents. There are thousands of cases of accidental burns and fires. Every diwali we read news of devastating fires in cracker factories or in cracker shops taking toll of quite a few lives. Sometimes crackers like rockets etc. land on heaps of grass or cotton and large fires break out which take hours or even days to douse. The recent horrible instance of crackers related fire in a Kerala Temple precincts claiming about 120 lives is fresh in the memory. Cracker factories employ young children for production of crackers (despite knowing that this is both illegal and
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Lighthouse