Sparks of danger | Tamil Nadu’s tragedies-plagued firecracker industry Premium

Tamil Nadu’s firecracker industry, concentrated in Sivakasi, is much more dispersed in now. Small units, both legal and illegal, are coming up across districts. Many of these units function with little supervision, monitoring, or official inspections, which has led to a spate of tragedies in recent months.

On October 9, V. Poovarasan, 25, heard a deafening blast. It was about 9:30 in the morning and he was working in the godown of a licensed firecracker unit in the village of V. Viragalur in Ariyalur district of eastern Tamil Nadu. Before Poovarasan could understand what was happening, a fire triggered by the blast began to quickly spread in the unit. He cowered in fear as he heard multiple explosions and then ran out of the godown.

“I was with three others in the last godown of the unit. We all ran towards a safe spot near a water body. While running, I fell, but thankfully I managed to get up and escape from the site,” recalls Poovarasan, who has been working at the unit for seven years.

Though relieved then, Poovarasan was horrified to learn later that his father-in-law Ravi and mother-in-law Sivakami, who were working in the first godown of the unit where the blast took place, were dead. His younger brother Sathyamurthy and his brother-in-law Karthik, who were also employed there, escaped with injuries. Karthik is undergoing treatment at the Thanjavur Medical College Hospital, about an hour away from the spot, while Sathyamurthy was discharged a few days ago.

The tragedy claimed the lives of 12 workers, including three women. The unit was reduced to rubble within hours and vehicles close to the unit were gutted. Officials say efforts are under way to cancel the licence of the unit where the blasts took place.

For years, Tamil Nadu, and particularly Sivakasi, an arid region in Virudhunagar district, has been known as the fireworks capital of the country. It all began in the early 20th century when two young cousins, A. Shanmuga Nadar and P. Ayya Nadar, set off to Calcutta to learn about the match work industry and came back with enough knowledge to set up two fireworks factories. The business did well in the region where rainfall was scanty and agricultural production low. Over the decades, more and more factories came up and the Sivakasi industry grew to account for 90% of fireworks production in India. According to estimates of the Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association (TANFAMA), there are around 1,085 cracker manufacturing units in and around the Sivakasi region today. At least 8 lakh people are directly and indirectly involved in the fireworks and allied industries, including transport.

Also read | Police detect production of crackers in houses of cracker unit workers

However, in the last few years, the industry has become much more dispersed, with small units, both legal and illegal, coming up across Tamil Nadu, with many of them being set up by those trained in Sivakasi. The head of a cracker manufacturing unit says this spread is due to high profit margins. “This is why even people with a retail license are venturing into the manufacturing business,” he says. “Workers from Sivakasi are paid double or even triple the wages to work at these units for eight to 12 hours of work during the festival season.”