TN: Barium nitrate, cracker ban hits Sivakasi traders; 40 pc dip in production

Sivakasi (Tamil Nadu) [India], October 19 : Firecracker manufacturers in Tamil Nadu's Sivakasi, who were thinking of a flourishing business this Diwali after a gap of two years because of COVID-19, are witnessing a loss due to the blanket ban on crackers in many states and the Supreme Court's orders banning the use of barium nitrate in crackers.
It is worth mentioning that the firecracker industry is home to more than a thousand registered firecracker units and it provides jobs to around 8 lakh people.
Sivakasi, the cracker manufacturing hub of India, in Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar, accounts for 90 per cent of Indian firecracker manufacturing. This year production has been reduced to over 40 per cent due to Supreme Court restrictions for using the chemical barium nitrate which is the major substance as it gives a longer shelf life to crackers.
Abiruban, owner of Ayyan fireworks told ANI, "The Supreme Court in its order has banned the manufacture of string crackers. String crackers usually constitute a minimum of 30 per cent of the volume of fireworks being sold by most factories in Sivakasi, that is one and the second is Supreme Court has banned a chemical by the name barium nitrate which is used as a stabilizing oxidizer and an element that gives a longer shelf life to crackers."
"Now the Ministry of environmental Forest and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have suggested to the Supreme Court that the ban on barium nitrate should be lifted and on the use of additives to manufacture fireworks. So, currently we are waiting for the Supreme Court order. But since the order is still pending our raw material and chemicals are poor in quality for manufacturing, for example last 10 days we had rains in Sivakasi we are unable to manufacture any firecrackers," he added.
Abiruban said, "The Supreme Court had banned string crackers we have no idea why?"
"We stopped the string crackers production that has taken away 30 per cent of our volume sales because we cannot use barium nitrate and our production has dropped across all items because we cannot find a proper alternative, for example, sparklers which is a large consumption, we cannot manufacture sparklers without barium nitrate," Abiruban said.
He said, "Generally this year we have seen the price hike of all raw materials from paper board to any chemical because of that the fireworks products are also slightly costlier this year".
"Import to other countries will happen once the logistical issues have been sorted, we have represented both the state and Central governments we expect them to come up with a solution. Colombo is the nearest mother vessel port so if we can transport our material to Colombo from the year coming forward we will see huge import potential, especially to Russia, Europe and America" he added.