Tag: life and death

Firecrackers and Pollution

General, India
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Firecrackers cause air pollution and noise pollution. When firecrackers burst day and night over a month the damage is great.

Firecrackers are meant to be burst during joyous occasions. They are burst during marriages, feasts, when countries win matches and during the opening ceremonies of sports events. Candidates who win elections to Parliament or Legislative Assembly burst firecrackers. The bursting is limited to a day. Once an MP who had won four times consecutively had contested for the fifth time and had bought firecrackers in advance taking his victory for granted before the counting of votes. He lost that election. During Diwali season bursting is over a month. People are unable to sleep. Air pollution leads to coughing and causes asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory diseases. It can destroy forests. It affects animals. Noise pollution affects health and work performance. Lack of sleep affects health. How much damage is caused by the solids released into atmosphere is not known. Some of them may be carried outside India. Children and old people are more affected by pollution. For sick infants continuous burst of firecrackers can make a difference between life and death.

The law bans bursting of firecrackers after 10 p.m. but it is not much enforced. Bursting of firecrackers for Diwali should not be for more than 24 hours. Parents have a role to play. There are various types of firecrackers. Sparklers and firecrackers that do not make much noise are to be used.

Helicopter crashes

Corruption, India
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In India helicopter crashes are more than passenger plane crashes. Many people have died in helicopter crashes including G. M. C. Balayogi, Madhavrao Scindia, Y. S. R. Reddy and Dorjee Khandu. In April 2011 there were two helicopter crashes in Arunachal Pradesh. In both cases helicopters belonged to Pawan Hans and Tawang featured in the flights. The crashes can be due to various reasons. The helicopter could be old and not fit for flying. The pilot does not have sufficient experience. Bad weather and poor visibility make flying difficult.

It seems there is no check on airworthiness of helicopters. Either DGCA does not do its job or the owners of helicopters continue the use of unfit helicopters without the knowledge of DGCA.

In recent days corruption in DGCA is exposed. Many people become pilots by submitting fake certificates. They are promoted without sufficient number of flying hours. During difficult situations their inexperience can make the difference between life and death.

It is said that in case of bad weather and poor visibility it is for the pilot to decide to fly or not. Y. S. R. Reddy was chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Dorjee Khandu was chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh. When a politician is a passenger he may ask the pilot to fly irrespective of bad weather and poor visibility. Many politicians have tight schedules, they do not want to miss any meeting and they do not want to take no for an answer. How many pilots resist orders in such cases is not known. The right thing for the pilot is not to start the flight or once in flight if the problem crops up to return to base or land safely wherever possible and tell the politician “You may not value your life but I value my life.” Passenger planes have black boxes. What goes wrong can be found out later. It is good to have black boxes in helicopters.