LUDHIANA: The trend of celebrating green and cracker-free Diwali is taking a toll on cracker traders who were hoping to do good business this Diwali.Surprisingly, the ban on Chinese crackers has also contributed to low sales this year as people find India made crackers costlier. The demand for crackers has hit such a low that the sales have failed to pick up even a day before Diwali."Small children like Chinese crackers the most. However, due to the ban, there is a smaller variety of these crackers in the market," said an owner of a wholesale shop.Other reasons which have led to a decline in sales are increased awareness about air pollution and harmful effects on health due to bursting of the fire crackers.Speaking to TOI, patron of Ludhiana Wholesale Fireworks Association (LWFA) Ashok Thapar said, "The sale of crackers is down even more than last year when the call for black Diwali was given across Punjab. Very few customers have turned up to buy crackers. This is primarily due to increasing number of people observing cracker-free Diwali."Thapar also added, "The ban on Chinese crackers has also led to fall in demand as a large number of people had become habitual of buying Chinese crackers as they are cheaper as compared to those manufactured by Indian companies."Vishal Shelly, a member of LWFA, said, "The calls for green Diwali have hit our business hard. We have large quantities of stocks lying with us. Seeing such low turnout with just a day remaining in Diwali we are sure that we will not be able to sell even 50% of our stock."Criticizing the people and NGOs for giving calls for green Diwali, LWFA member Tribhuvan Thapar said, "Diwali comes once in a year and is the biggest festival of Indians. But this is very unfortunate that some people give call for green or cracker-free Diwali. Bursting crackers on Diwali is an integral part of our history and I think our young generation should follow this tradition. They may do so by bursting just a single cracker."