Let's not bomb and launch rockets this year.Requesting schoolchildren to cut down on crackers, particularly bombs and rockets, during this Deepavali, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and Chennai corporation officials will reach out to them in their schools with week-long campaigns. To address the alarming levels of noise and air pollution, the TNPCB officials will work with school heads in every zone to spread awareness among students to reduce cracker shopping.
The officials said schoolchildren w ould be informed during school prayer about the ill-effects of crackers. “This is the first time we are visiting schools and reaching out to students. For all these years, we used to organise awareness campaigns for the public. This time, we have designed our campaigns to reach students, who influence parents to buy more crackers. We will ask the children not to buy rockets and atom bombs, which cause intolerable levels of sound and air pol , lution,“ said the officials.
e They added that compared to parents, approaching students through campaigns would receive better results. “We will issue pamphlets and explain to them that they could buy mathappu and other crackers which do not burst with loud noise and emit noxious gases.
We will brief them about how tedious garbage collection is after Deepavali,“ they said. Apart from schools, TNPCB has also identified neighbourhoods like Triplicane, Sowcarpet and Royapuram where greater volume of pollution levels was measured in the previous years than the rest of the city. Many children groups in the city have welcomed the campaign. R. Dheena, president, Arunodhaya Children's Club, Tondiarpet, said, “We will tell our parents not to buy crackers this year. We will carry home the messages we learn from the awareness campaigns in our schools.“