Hindus across the world will celebrate the Diwali festival tonight with colourful, luminous displays signifying the triumph of light over darkness. But in India's capital, one of the major ways to celebrate – the setting off firecrackers – will exacerbate an already extreme air pollution problem.
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00:00Stocking up ahead of a big celebration.
00:05Millions of Indians here and around the world will celebrate Diwali today,
00:11the Hindu festival that signifies good triumphing over evil.
00:15Since childhood we have been celebrating Diwali
00:18and it's all about being together and of course the decorations.
00:22The way to celebrate? Lights and firecrackers.
00:27But the novelty comes at a cost.
00:30The smoke exacerbating an already severe air pollution problem.
00:34It's a complete haze. Sometimes it's just that morning you cannot see beyond 100 metres.
00:41To combat the problem, the Delhi government has banned the sale of all firecrackers for the rest of the year.
00:47It is allowing the use of green firecrackers for two hours tonight,
00:52which supposedly produce 30% less particulate matter.
00:56But to find a shop that is allowed to sell them,
00:59you have to travel an hour out of Delhi to a shop like this one.
01:03Green crackers are more expensive than normal crackers by about 25%,
01:09but they are less harmful so we prefer people to buy and burst green.
01:15Some believe they're a responsible way to celebrate.
01:19Even I'm telling my brother let's not buy too much, let's buy only the green crackers
01:23and let's buy as minimum as possible.
01:25But environmentalists say they're a scam.
01:28So this is really strange that you are willing to say,
01:31okay so I'll give less poison to my child, less toxicity with less crackers or green crackers.
01:38Despite the rules, you can still easily buy green crackers here in Delhi.
01:43Because the ban only came in at the start of last month,
01:46a lot of what is now technically contraband had already been bought.
01:50And vendors are openly selling it.
01:53And those who use them say Diwali shouldn't be demonised.
01:57This is for one day. We celebrate Diwali for one day only.
02:01And traffic pollution causes us 365 days in a year.