Sky Lanterns

I have been working on an anti air pollution initiative that was made possible because of Ashoka Ventures, an organisation whose slogan is “Everyone is a changemaker.” It encourages everyone to make some positive change in their surroundings no matter how small.

My idea was to reduce the usage of crackers during the Diwali season as that causes enormous amounts of all kinds of pollution. But if there are no crackers then the festival of light loses its light. What if we lit sky lanterns in the crackers’ place?

Sky Lanterns are like hot air balloons as they work on the same principle of rising hot air, but they much smaller. Remember the floating lights from the movie ‘Tangled’? Those are sky lanterns. Sky lanterns originally come from China. They were used for announcing victories in war but soon people started using it for festive occasions. They are really fun and easy to use, and are amazing to watch them rise up and disappear into the night.

In 2017 a few people from my apartment lit sky lanterns and did not use a single firecracker. From then on, we decided not to use firecrackers and light up these lanterns instead. This gave me the idea of doing this on a large-scale by telling other people in my neighborhood to do the same. So I made around 50 of them and sold them around the neighborhood with the help of a few friends, hoping that the buyers would think twice before using firecrackers.

Along with the lanterns, we sold DIY kits and an explanatory pamphlet, which also includes a QR-code that takes you to our video that shows you how it’s done.

The reason we used sky lanterns to reduce pollution is that they are completely biodegradable and the wax that burns is environmentally friendly as it burns without producing much smoke. Also on landing back on the ground, if it found, it can be patched up and lit again.

This is the pamphlet we gave along with the lantern kit.

And here’s our video.

I would like to conclude by encouraging people to reduce the use of firecrackers and find alternate, less polluting ways of celebrating our festivals.

May the Light be with you!