Last October, little ahead of Diwali, a festival normally associated with the sound and light of firecrackers, S.Srinivasan, who all his life has only known the making of firecrackers, took to cultivation of mulberry. The fireworks manufacturer from Sivakasi- the hub for making firecrackers- went a step further in March this year and set up a silk reeling unit, also in Sivakasi. The mulberry leaves are fed to silk worms and the cocoon baves are reeled together to make raw silk yarn. This is quite an entrepreneurial jump and to many a smart move and a textbook case of a smooth business transition but then Srinivasan is still a worried man.
The 62 year old, who for the last 52 years has only known firecracker manufacturing and has been running a unit set up by his grandfather in Sivakasi, says “this is new for me and it is not easy and cautions that it is also too simplistic to think that any firecracker manufacturer can just get into any other business or that business diversification is an option.” More than an arduous journey for the entrepreneur, he says, the real big challenge is sustaining the workers in the fireworks business who have for several decades provided their service and know little beyond firecrackers. Also, given the viability challenge for established units, they are getting absorbed by small illegal firecracker manufacturing units that may not necessarily follow the norms.”
Even as an entrepreneur, he say, “I will take a couple of years to even breakeven and about three to four years to make reasonable returns and grow and till then sustain my workers who only know firecracker-making?”
This, at a time when the business is shrinking is an added challenge. “Over the last three years my fireworks business turnover is down 80 per cent and the number of workers employed down by a forth.” He says, he is not alone and that many of the 1000 odd units in Sivakasi are feeling the pressure and finding little scope for business viability. The move towards curbing the use of firecrackers and the emphasis on green crackers that comes with its set of challenges, has got many firecracker makers worried, he says.
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In fact, Srinivasan, who for several years been active in the firework makers association, took to even writing a letter to the Prime Minister in March this year pointing to the challenges in relation to the making of green crackers and among other things mentioned that “barium nitrate, the use of which is not allowed, cannot be effectively or totally substituted by any other nitrates such as strontium nitrate or sodium nitrate.” Both, he says, “are always cautiously and sparingly used by fireworks manufacturers as they are highly moisture sensitive. Several fatal accidents and property damages have occurred in the past decades because of thermal decomposition of strontium nitrate and sodium nitrate in the industry.”
Add to this, he points out that “Strontium Nitrate is obtained from two minerals – celestite (SrSO4) and strontianite (SrCO3). Since these minerals are not available in India, the domestic manufacturers of Strontium compounds and end users of Strontium Nitrate have to necessarily import these materials from countries such as Turkey, Iraq, Germany, and Spain.” With the dollar appreciating against the rupee, these imports are proving costly too.
Chemicals such as potassium nitrate or barium nitrate or now strontium nitrate or sodium nitrate are used for sound and light in the firecrackers.
Among other things, he suggests that the additive based solution suggested by CSIR NEERI (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur) should be reviewed and revalidated (including their Green Cracker Certificates) by any other research body before enforced upon the industry. That apart, in order to ensure a more effective check against pollution, the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO), formerly known as Department of Explosives, Nagpur should be entrusted with the task of introducing more effective oxidizer or fuel in the manufacture of fireworks, that can bring tangible reduction in pollution in the place of the additive technology of CSIR NEERI.
