The noise of non-stop bursting of firecrackers engulfed Kolkata on the Diwali evening.
Banned firecrackers were burst across the city and residents, from Gariahat in the south to Jorasanko in the north, alleged that they did not see police trying to enforce rules as crackers burst without a moment’s pause.
The Supreme Court has ordered that only green crackers could be burst on Diwali, during a two-hour window starting 8pm. But across the city, the bursting of firecrackers started much before 8pm.
Only those crackers that produce up to 125 decibel of sound at 4m from the source are allowed. Going by the experience of the residents from across the city, the crackers that were burst on Sunday night produced sound much more than that.
Residents of Gariahat, Ballygunge, Kasba, Tollygunge, Jadavpur, Jorasanko and parts of central Kolkata complained that crackers were being incessantly burst around them.
However, no one was prosecuted or arrested till 8pm on Diwali for violating cracker rules. Kolkata police sources said 22 people were arrested for “disorderly conduct”.
Officers said the figures for arrest after 8pm on Diwali would be available on Monday.
The police said 28 people had been arrested and 15 FIRs lodged in the last two days for violating rules related to firecrackers.
“It has been very noisy since Saturday. I am surprised why the police have not done anything about this? I could hear loud crackers being burst close to Gariahat police station. But apparently no one is doing anything to stop it,” complained a resident of Dover Lane on Diwali night.
An officer at Gariahat police station said they had been acting on complaints and had prosecuted a number of violators.
“We are trying to regulate the use of sound-emitting crackers. But once we prosecute offenders, calls start coming with the request to let them off,” said an officer in the south-east division of the city police, which includes Gariahat and Ballygunge police stations.
A resident of Garfa, who lives close to Kasba, said his neighbourhood had been “noisy” since Diwali morning. “I didn’t find any cop trying to stop the bursting of firecrackers,” he said.
According to Lalbazar records, 28 people had been arrested in the last two days (Friday and Saturday) for bursting firecrackers. “Eight people had been arrested on Friday and 20 on Saturday for bursting firecrackers in violation of court order,” said a senior officer of the city police.
“Altogether, 30 FIRs were registered between November 2 and 11 in connection with possession of and bursting of illegal firecrackers. Forty people have been arrested for the violation, of whom 20 were arrested on Saturday
alone.”
The prosecutions and arrests, however, did little to provide relief to animals, who were among the worst sufferers of the noise menace.
A resident of Santoshpur said his pet dog had been “shivering in his wife’s lap” since Sunday evening. “My pet shivered every time there was a loud sound of a cracker going off in the neighbourhood,” he said.
The impact of sound on the hearing organ of animals — pets as well as strays — is much more compared with humans.
“Diwali is the time of the year when my pets suffer the most. They hide under the bed and stop eating. They are so scared because of the sound,” said a resident of Thakurpukur.
While a large section of people in south and central Kolkata complained of police inaction, some Kolkatans said the cop presence this Diwali was more than in other years and the festival this year was “relatively quieter”.
“Every year, I complain to the local Anandapur police station and also write on Facebook about the crackers being burst in our neighbourhood. But this year, I could barely hear any crackers going off on Saturday. When I stepped out to visit my father in Beckbagan, I saw so many cops posted at so many points along EM Bypass. Maybe, the police presence made the difference,” a resident of Anandapur said.
Environment activist Subhas Dutta, too, said the sound pollution was a “little less” this Diwali compared with previous years. He, however, expressed concern about the quality of air and the impact of firecrackers on it.
A Behala resident said the sound of crackers was more on Saturday compared to that on Sunday afternoon.
Lalbazar sources said cops had been deployed across neighbourhoods to keep an eye on possible violations.
“But it is not always possible to identify the source of the sound unless we know the exact location. At times, the offenders are nowhere to be seen by the time we reach the spot where banned firecrackers were being burst,” said a police officer.