These TN villages show the world real 'green' Deepavali

Chennai, Oct 20 (PTI) As most cities in India, including Delhi, woke up to toxic air on Deepavali, with the city’s air quality index (AQI) slipping to “very poor”, a handful of villages in Tamil Nadu are showing to the world how celebration of a festival can benefit from a mindful approach.

In Vettangudi village in Sivaganga District, for instance, this has been the case for nearly 50 years now.

“These villagers decided not to burst crackers to safeguard migratory birds," Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests, Tamil Nadu government, told PTI.

With the debate over “green” crackers reaching a fevered pitch in the days leading up to Deepavali, Sahu’s post on X, and the accompanying video made by the Forest Department documenting Vettangudi’s journey, showed the world a silence that spoke volumes.

In the video, one of the villagers, 78-year-old Arumugam, said the birds started coming to their village in 1972.

Sahu said 36.89 hectares surrounding the village, comprising three interconnected irrigation tanks, was declared Vettangudi Bird Sanctuary in 1977.

“The sanctuary hosts rich birdlife, including the Black-headed White Ibis and Open-bill Stork as keystone species, along with cormorants, darters, spoonbills, herons, egrets, and whistling ducks. Even the rare Chinese Pond Heron has recently been sighted here,” added Sahu.

Even before the government started its conservation efforts, Arumugam said they realised the significance of the birds.

“Our elders started noticing a pattern: when the birds visited us, we received good rainfall and prospered and when they didn’t, we suffered because of lack of rains,” Arumugam explained in the video.

He said they soon realised that around Deepavali is when the birds hatch chicks and that the firecrackers at that time are detrimental to their safety.

Sahu explained that as the villagers view the birds as a “divine sign” holding them in reverence, they willingly participated in what ecologists term as “community conservation”.

“Our role in this village is limited to thanking them. Every year, the District Collector and Forest Department officials visit them with sweets during Diwali, a gesture of gratitude for this community’s enduring devotion to coexistence,” said Sahu.

Soon, a neighbouring village, Kollukudipatti, also soon joined in the decision not to burst crackers.

About 20 years ago, nearly 10 villages surrounding another bird sanctuary, Vellode Bird Sanctuary in Erode, which is about 250 km from Sivaganga, decided to abstain from loud crackers in order not to scare away the birds.

The Vellode Bird Sanctuary that is spread over 77.85 hectares of land under the Vadamugam Vellode panchayat started in 1996.

Villages like P Merrupalayam, Pungampadi, Thalaiya Kattu Valasu, Thachenkary Vazhi, Semmempalayam and Ellapalayam are some of the big ones surrounding the bird sanctuary.

The villagers here realised that visiting birds bring in a horde of bird watchers, and thus enabling them to earn some extra cash by catering to their needs.

“But we realised that if we burst crackers during Deepavali, when the birds hatch eggs, it scares the birds away. So, we celebrate with ‘kambi mathappu’ (sparklers) and ‘bussvanam’ (flowerpot),” said Ponnusamy and Mosuvannan, residents of Vellode, to PTI.

Replying to Sahu’s social media post, which has 24,000 views so far, some of the netizens identified few other villages in Tamil Nadu which willingly gave up on crackers choosing peaceful coexistence.

“There are a few more,” posted X user Balaji (@sbalaji1). He identified Perumbur, a village near Sirkazhi in Mayiladuthurai and Kittampalayam village in Coimbatore, providing links to articles about them in newspapers.

Both the villages have thousands of bats roosting in the banyan and tamarind trees and the villagers took a conscious decision to safeguard them by not bursting crackers, according to the reports.

“All these are beautiful examples of enduring devotion to nature. They also show us how harmony between man and nature can be nurtured and how Deepavali can be a festival of light and compassion,” said Sahu. PTI JR COR ROH