Every year, thousands of Owls die on Diwali night because millions of people across India crack crackers worth of billions of rupees on Diwali day. Owl is ride of Maa Laxmi to whom we pray on Diwali day for giving us more happiness and prosperity; however, simultaneously we kill her favourite bird. Many varieties of owls in Indian are already close to extinction; therefore, with extensive use of crackers, we are only making these beautiful birds extinct from our world.
Use of crackers in India is still very high and it is increasing rapidly with each passing year which is causing great pollution and threat to birds especially birds which fly at night like owls. Owl is a night bird and it mainly moves out at night to feed himself; therefore, many of such owls got killed on Diwali night after coming in contact of such crackers. Residual air pollution left behind after the burning of all these crackers does cause death of many owls and other birds.
However, many people in the madness of their richness do not consider welfare of such birds and they just enjoy polluting air and causing noise pollution. Crackers were never part of ancient Diwali celebrations; however, after independence we are seeing major use of crackers for celebrating Diwali. Ancient Diwali was celebrated by lighting Diyas and exchanging sweets; however, today crackers have become main part of Diwali celebration which causes more problems than making festival an ideal festival.
Recent, media campaigns have provided some help in reducing use of crackers by people; however, still lots of more is required to be done by all of us to make Diwali a safe festval for all.