Polluted Delhi is helping along a tentative turn towards green crackers

With a nudge from polluted Delhi, the fireworks industry is taking a tentative turn towards green crackers. Ritwik Sharma reports

"We are not selling illegal firecrackers," read the notices distinctly displayed outside a handful of shops near the historic Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. Inside, precisely two varieties of firecrackers are available: phuljhari (sparklers) and anar (flowerpots), both compliant with the “green crackers” formulae laid down by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India’s largest research and development organisation.
 

Ankur, the owner of Prem Fireworks who reveals only his first name, gestures towards the half-empty shelves at his store that started selling fireworks over three decades ago. In 2016, after the Supreme Court banned the sale of firecrackers