New Delhi: When the skies turn hazy with pollutants and millions gasp for breath, it’s time for a Diwali rethink on how to combine celebration with caution. And some innovators are ready with at least one answer seed crackers’ that burst not with sound and light but flowers, fruits and vegetables.
So imagine, not crackers exploding into a thousand ephemeral stars in the night sky or bursting on the ground with a deafening boom but rockets’ blooming into marigolds, anaars’ sprouting into amaltas or a charkha’ releasing an onion sapling.
It’s a paradigm shift from the de-rigeur firecrackers but seed crackers’ are the perfect solution, particularly in a pandemic year when the high levels of pollutants pose a severe threat to coronavirus patients, entrepreneurs said as the National Green Tribunal on Monday imposed a total ban on firecrackers across the Delhi-NCR region till November 30.
Roshan Ray, founder of Seed Paper India, is among those experimenting with seed crackers, eco-friendly if a little pricey.
After reading about continuously spiking air pollution post-Diwali year after year and the respiratory problems caused by it, Ray decided that a change of mindset was required and went back to the drawing board to reinvent Diwali.
When people think of firecrackers they associate it with burning and smoke and sound. So we need to change people’s mindset that crackers don’t need to be burst but they can be grown into different plants. We need to understand that we can celebrate without harming the environment, the Bangalore-based Ray told PTI.
Ray’s rockets’ turn into marigold flowers, bijli bombs’ into medicinal tulsi plants and hydrogen bombs’ into juicy tomatoes.
They are shaped like the usual firecrackers including ‘sutli bomb’, ‘hydrogen bomb’, and ‘anaar’ for the sake of a nostalgic feel, but the seed crackers don’t burst. They grow into various vegetable plants, the 36-year-old green entrepreneur said.
It’s a nascent business but growing, slowly and steadily.
From a barely countable number in 2018 to an odd 500 the next year, Ray has managed to sell over 7,000 boxes so far this year.
Each box contains seven different types of seed crackers.
It feels good that people are taking interest in the concept. I know we cannot replace a habit with another just like that. It takes time. I am happy about the progress, he added.
The seed crackers are made by using plantable seed paper or containing a seed ball inside the cracker, which is usually made by recycled paper. A seed ball, made with paper pulp or soil, provides protection against predators and adverse weather.
While Ray has tried to maintain a visual resemblance to the real firecrackers, Tanmay Joshi from Gram Art Project decided to go beyond the nostalgic value and send a message through his seed crackers.
His Diwali rocket can turn into a climber laden with cucumbers instead of bursting into a cloud of poisonous smoke for momentary joy. And a zameen chakkar rises from its ashes to become a red onion.
People were unable to find fun in seed crackers. They were unable to connect. So we decided to make the design meaningful in one way or another, Joshi, who operates from Paradsinga village in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district, said.
The pricing, according to Divyanshu Asopa, founder of 21Fools, will come down after more people start taking interest.
“We make sustainable handcrafted products which are unique because each and every product is manually made, printed and fabricated by our local craftspersons community. (PTI)
