Costly green crackers are deterring the residents of Jharkhand capital, Ranchi, from transition to eco-friendly Diwali this year. However, increased citizen’s perception towards green crackers may lead to cleaner air during Diwali.

These facts were revealed in a cracker vendors survey (carried out in the crackers hub of Harmu Ground, Kadru, Upper Bazar and Shradhanand Road in Ranchi) and a public perception study carried out in different localities of Ranchi in the first week of November by a pan-India environmental NGO SwitchON Foundation.

In the survey among over 30 crackers vendors between November 1 and 7, around 97 per cent of the vendors reported higher prices of green crackers as compared to last year.

Around 74 per cent of the vendors reported average market demand for green crackers while 23 per cent noted good demand and three per cent indicated poor demand.

Interestingly, of the total surveyed vendors, 87 per cent identified green crackers by recognising the CSIR-NEERI logo and QR codes, while the remaining 13 per cent were unable to do so. Around 65 per cent of surveyed vendors stocked about 75 per cent-100 per cent of green crackers only while 10 per cent maintained stocks of 50-75 per cent of green crackers, 25 per cent stocked 25-50 per cent of green crackers.

“Green crackers are devoid of barium compounds reducing PM emissions by 30 per cent and noise level within the 125dB permissible limit,” said SwitchON Foundation spokesperson Gargai Maitra.

“This infers that the general consumer might either be not aware or not willing to purchase green crackers. This can be inferred from the fact that almost all vendors claimed that the green crackers are highly priced and that might be a core reason behind low demands,” opined Maitra.

In the citizen’s perception survey among 160 respondents (127 men and 33 women) revealed high awareness regarding the ban on traditional crackers and the permission for bursting green crackers.