No crackers: TN villages celebrate Diwali quietly for Vellode’s birds

More than 10 villages around the Vellode Bird Sanctuary, about 10 kilometres from Erode in Tamil Nadu, celebrated a cracker-free Diwali on Sunday so that thousands of resident and migratory birds would be spared the smoke and noise.

The sanctuary’s bird season runs from October to March and coincides with the festival. Painted storks, Asian openbills, black-headed ibises, little cormorants and grey herons arrive in large numbers, joined by migratory flocks from as far as Siberia, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, including pelicans, sandpipers, Caspian terns and black-necked storks.

Residents of neighbouring hamlets including Mettupalayam, Pungambadi and Ellapalayam chose, about two decades ago, to give up firecrackers on their own. Nobody ordered them to. They decided the noise and smoke would frighten nesting birds and disrupt breeding, and that new clothes and sweets were celebration enough.

“We willingly give up this joy so the birds are not frightened away by the noise of crackers. We want them to live and thrive here,” Kalpana, a local resident, told PTI. She added: “We celebrate joyously by wearing new clothes and making sweets. It is a sacrifice we gladly make for the birds. Seeing them arrive in such large numbers is a feast for the eyes.”

On Sunday, PTI reported, children in the villages voluntarily skipped crackers and burst only sparklers, while families marked the day in new clothes. Villagers in nearby places such as Chellappampalayam, Koothampalayam, Vadagalpudur and Kalarpalayam still celebrate with traditional fireworks. The 240-acre sanctuary, one of 16 official bird sanctuaries in Tamil Nadu, has a 50-acre pond fed mainly by seepage from the Lower Bhavani Project canal and monsoon runoff.