While the government is trying various methods, including a hefty tax levy, to make smokers kick the habit, tobacco-lovers are turning to cheaper options to “puff away their blues”.

Trends indicate smokers hit by the rising prices have shifted to so-called down-market options such as bidis and gutkhas.

“The increased tax on cigarettes is forcing consumers to shift to cheaper and alternative tobacco products. As a result, the overall consumption is on the up, as prices of other tobacco products are very less,” director of Tobacco Institute of India Udayan Lal says.

According to a health ministry report, India is home to 100 million bidi smokers and around 8 lakh people in the country die due to tobacco consumption annually with 6 lakh deaths caused by bidis alone.

“It’s not that the government is unaware of the growing bidi industry. The highly labour-intensive nature of the industry, which provides large-scale employment, gives it a powerful voice and that could be one of the reasons the taxes are so low,” says Lal.

“Also, the system of manufacturing and distributing bidis is highly decentralised. There are thousands of bidi factories and no reliable data on their production or consumption is available,” Lal adds.

Health ministry stats reveal about 15% of tobacco consumption in India is in the form of cigarettes, while bidis make for 53%.

“Unlike the rest of the world, where, on an average, cigarettes account for as much as 90% of the total tobacco consumed, in India cigarettes represent only 15% of total tobacco consumption. The remaining 85% of tobacco consumption is in the form of traditional products such as bidis, khaini, gutkha, etc,” Lal says.

Cigarettes contribute 85% to the total excise revenue collected from the tobacco industry, amounting to Rs8,500 crore, according to Tobacco Institute of India.

Pointing out that bidi consumption was very high in north India, particularly in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, with the ratio of bidis to cigarettes sometimes being as high as 24:1, Lal says, “Bidis are more harmful than cigarettes because they are filled with small amounts of low-grade tobacco.”

Wearing work gloves, Stephanie Smith stood at North Avenue Beach, ready to take a quick stroll down to the water and back.

It had been a few weeks since the city's beaches opened and a new smoking ban had taken effect. So Smith, of the environmental organization Alliance of the Great Lakes, wondered: How many cigarette butts would she find?

Stuffing the butts into an Old Navy plastic bag—"Reuse and recycle, right?"—Smith paced in semihunch like a clue-hungry detective, her eyes narrowing into sharp focus as she plucked scraps from the damp sand. "It's hard to tell how long they've been here and that's part of the mystery," she said. "A lot of these are probably leftovers from a few days ago. Or even last season. Who knows?"

One thing is for certain: Smith never waited longer than a quick five-count before finding another butt, or a fistful. Filters were scattered everywhere, from water's edge to inches from new "NO SMOKING" signs adorning the north face of lifeguard stands. At the beach house—where similar signs were curiously, conspicuously absent—Smith dumped the contents onto a table. Though damp and in many cases shriveled with age, the butts reeked like an ashtray inhaled at close range. Smith recoiled in disgust.