Breaking away from the usual tradition of bursting crackers and lighting lamps, a group of nature enthusiasts from Tirupati decided to celebrate this year’s Deepavali in a novel way.

Tirupati Adventure Addicts (TAA), a local community and trekking group based in Tirupati, who arrange weekend treks to Tirumala forest attempted a unique celebration post Deepavali. The group lit a bunch of sky lanterns and released them into the sky, presenting a mesmerising view from the top of the nearest cliff as well as from the city downhill.

“We wanted to light up the forest sky without causing air or noise pollution and therefore landed on this idea,” said TAA admin Inesh Royal and Hem Kumar. The festival is more about joy, unity, camaraderie and sharing, rather than deriving materialistic pleasure from bursting crackers, the duo added.