SC ban on barium likely to take the spark off Sivakasi firework units

Key items not being produced is likely to further bring it down, say local industry sources

Fireworks of your childhood days — the traditional phuljhari (sparkler), the rolling chakri (ground spinner), which shoots out colourful sparks, and anar (flowerpot), which displays flames and soundless twinkling stars — may be a thing of the past.

Manufacturers in Tamil Nadu’s Sivakasi, which makes over 90 per cent of the fireworks in India, have stopped the production of such items following a Supreme Court ban on barium.

Industry experts indicate this is expected to wipe out almost 50 per cent of the revenue of the Rs 3,000-crore (pre-pandemic) industry, which was deeply hit by Covid and the National Green Tribunal restrictions