The Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to re­place tra­di­tion­al fire­works with a full drone show and silent fire­works dis­play for this year’s In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions is be­ing wel­comed by an­i­mal wel­fare ad­vo­cates and Cit­i­zens Against Noise Pol­lu­tion (CANPTT), who say the move could sig­nal a shift in how T&T cel­e­brates ma­jor na­tion­al and re­li­gious oc­ca­sions.

CANPTT vice pres­i­dent for pub­lic re­la­tions Tama­ra Chatar said the or­gan­i­sa­tion was “ex­treme­ly pleased” with the de­ci­sion, de­scrib­ing it as a step to­wards bal­anc­ing cel­e­bra­tion with con­sid­er­a­tion for peo­ple and an­i­mals af­fect­ed by ex­ces­sive noise.

“We wel­come this step for­ward, but it al­so high­lights that wider prob­lem we still have with noise in this coun­try,” Chatar said.