Current affairs

Annaatthe, Rain, and Pollution...Here's how Chennai celebrated its Diwali!

By alagu, 05 November, 2021
Chennai, Annaathe, Diwali

The clouds above Singara Chennai on Thursday were disparate, the air weighed with an odour of rain, and the ambience was filled with murky particles, which inundated the city with pollution. This Diwali, besides being the festival of lights, has ended up being the festival of reunion as Chennai and the entire state of Tamil Nadu had marked its first family-filled Diwali after the Covid-19 lockdown.

It was apparently visible when the crackers had whistled in their style across the territory. Chennai, in an unprecedented fashion, had blanketed with rain and fog, added with the sea of celebrations over the release of Superstar's 'Annaatthe'. Though the downpour was incessant, nothing stopped the Chennaiites from bursting the fireworks and firing the celebrations.

The city woke up much earlier on Thursday and a large section of its populace had marched towards the theatres in the wee hours as Superstar was waiting to greet them. The eyes of the sun were dimmed by the natural rain and man-made pollution and the city had fallen off deep into this blanket. Let's take a look at how Chennai took a new colour and its impacts.

Annaatthe: 

At an outset, Annaatthe gave a colourful opening for Diwali in Chennai as the ardent fans of Rajinikanth had relished the 100% reunion at the theatres and most of the theatres were flooded by the fans, who have gathered to celebrate their star before the sunrise. The celebrations were intense even at around 2 am as hundreds of fans had come to watch the first show and the theatres were filled with the banners of the superstar and with some unique appearances of his superfans.

The crackers had pierced the clouds and gave a rousing welcome to the much-expected movie. However, when hours passed by, the colour brought by Annaatthe had seemingly begun to disappear as a large section of fans and audience exited the theatres with disappointment as their Annaatthe Diwali had ended with frustration over a number of outdated crackers.

The sense was pervasive across the state after Annaatthe busted with a little validity. But, congratulations to the director for bringing such an ensemble cast together, though there were flaws in accommodating them. Annaatthe had eventually become a bland Diwali treat for the superstar fans. 

Rain: 

Chennai is still not out of the trajectory of the rainy clouds and the rainfall was incessant on Thursday, but hardly disrupted the celebrations. Chennaiites had never taken a break in bursting the crackers and the city was occupied with overwhelming flames and sparkling colours. Besides Chennai, several parts of Tamil Nady had celebrated Diwali with the downpour and it has been predicted that Chennai and parts of Tamil Nadu will receive moderate to heavy rains on Saturday, November 6. What has become a big relief for Chennaiites was that rainfall didn't inundate the city, which made the residents celebrate the rain of crackers.  

Pollution: 

It has become a bothering factor for the city as the intense bursting of crackers had triggered air pollution across the city and caused a heavy disruption in the movements of vehicles. The entire day was blanketed with smog and the odour of crackers. The city was struggling to see and breathe and had an alarm of its air quality. According to reports, Chennai's air quality had dropped to hazardous levels on Thursday, taking the pollution to 446 on the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the evening. As per the data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Chennai had recorded an average AQI of 154 during the day and was categorized under moderate level. 

However, the air quality had dropped to a hazardous level in the evening as the sequel of bursting more crackers as well as low temperature and wind speed. It has been reported that the poor wind speed had allowed the pollutants to accumulate and there had also been a violation in the allowed time limit to burst the crackers. The Tamil Nadu government had issued an advisory on the bursting of crackers and had allowed only green crackers during two-time slots - 6 am to 7 am and 7 pm to 8 pm. 

However, this advisory was put on winds as several residents had violated it and kept the fire on during the entire day. The reports say that the city had seven air quality monitoring stations and analysis of data during Thursday evening had shown that the AQI at all the seven stations witnessed a surge from 7 pm. Speaking to the media, Puviarasan, Director of Area Cyclone Warning Centre had said that there were two main reasons behind the increase in pollution on Thursday. 

He said the first reason was there was no wind in the second half of the day. As people continued to burst crackers in the evening in the absence of wind, these pollutants would stay, making the air quality poorer. Another reason is that the pollutants would get absorbed by the moisture in the air due to high humidity levels. He affirmed that the pollution levels will drop in the next two or three days. More significantly, the Greater Chennai Corporation has revealed that a pile of debris were cleared off the roads and streets.

The corporation officials had said that the civic body had cleared off the cracker wastage amounting to 48 tonnes from the roads and streets, which is an enormous scale of wastage. The corporation workers are into a Himalayan task of clearing the roads and streets and the officials have said that the cleaning drive will continue for the next two days. The pollution had heavily disrupted the people who were riding vehicles and more importantly, Tamil Nadu had recorded around 58 fire accidents on Thursday of which 11 accidents were happened due to crackers. 

Shockingly, the environmental activists had said that the air pollution had attained a dangerous level in Chennai on Thursday and that the city had recorded air pollution to a scale equal to what would be recorded if every resident in the city smoke 45 cigarettes per day. On the other hand, the Chennai police had filed 758 cases in connection to the violation of timing in bursting the crackers.  

 

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