The explosive truth about the link between Chinese fireworks and India’s dim Diwali
- Black market imports from China, confusing regulations and pollution concerns are undermining India’s fireworks industry
- Industry sources say Diwali sales this year were down by 30 per cent
Arumugam Chinnaswamy set up his makeshift booth selling firecrackers in a Chennai neighbourhood a week ahead of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, with great expectations of doing a brisk trade.
Yet a week later, he has been forced to pack up more than half his stock in the hope he’ll have better luck next year.
“Four years ago, I sold firecrackers worth 800,000 rupees (US$11,288) on the eve of Diwali alone. This year, the sales have not even been a quarter of that,” said Chinnaswamy, 65, painting a grim picture that will be recognised by many in the Indian fireworks industry.
Chinnaswamy buys his firecrackers in Sivakasi, an industrial town in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu that produces more than 90 per cent of the country’s fireworks.
But this reputation is under threat, struggling under the weight of an anti-pollution campaign, regulatory uncertainty and the arrival of cheap black-market Chinese imports. Irregular monsoons and a slowdown-induced cash crunch have not helped matters either.