New Delhi:'Green Crackers' , emitting less pollution, will be available in the market this Diwali, Science and Technology Minister Harshvandhan said on Saturday.Addressing a press conference here at Anushandhan Bhawan, the Minister, who launched the 'Green Crackers' at a function on Saturday , said that after banning of traditional crackers in 2017 by the Supreme Court, he had appealed to the Scientists of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to make such crackers which emit less pollution commonly known as 'green crackers'.
"The CSIR along with its eight laboratories took up the task and formulated these eco-friendly crackers which will have 30 percent less emission than the traditional one", the Minister said.
The scientists involved in this formulation approached the major fire cracker manufacturers with the new formula and produced and tested the samples at their factories, he added.
Dr Harsh Vardhan also said the fire cracker manufacturers happily adopted the new chemical formulae and started producing the fire crackers according to the guidelines set by the apex court and around230 MoUs and 165 non-disclosure agreements have been signed with the manufacturers.
He called for adoption of new and improved formulations by manufacturers and submission of compositional analysis of raw materials and samples by fireworks manufactures for emissions testing at CSIR- CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and CSIR- NEERI approved National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) facilities.
The fire cracker producers have been producing five most popular fire crackers like 'Anaar, chakri, sutali bomb, sparkles.
Replying a question on the cost factor of the these crackers, NEERI Director Rakesh Kumar said that the cost of these would be same as the traditional fire crackers or even less than that in some types of crackers.
He further said that CSlR-NEERI developed improvements in conventional formulations based on Barium Nitrate to meet the stipulated norms of green crackers as per the recommendation of technical committee that consists of members from Ministry of Environment and Forest, Central Pollution Control Board and Council, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (MoEF, CPCB and CSIR).
Mr Kumar also explained that CSIR-NEERI has developed new formulations for reduced emission light and sound emitting crackers with 30 percent reduction in particulate matter using Potassium Nitrate (KN03) as an oxidant.
"These new and improved formulations are available for adoption by fireworks manufactures after signing NDA,''he said.
. He also highlighted that about 530 emissions testing certificates have been issued to fireworks manufactures for new and improved formulations meeting the stipulated guidelines of green crackers",he said.
Dr Sadhana Rayalu and the team of CSlR demonstrated the green crackers and also the green logo for differentiation of green crackers from conventional cracker and QR coding for monitoring.(UNI)