The sound and the fiery: on green crackers, pollution control

As Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) head into another winter, they must brace for the return of a foe kept on a leash that is alternately loosened or tightened. In November 2016, the Supreme Court of India suspended licences for the sale of fireworks in the NCR after Deepavali celebrations pushed PM2.5 levels above 700 g/m³. The Court relaxed the suspension in September 2017, partly to protect existing licence holders and livelihoods, but restored the suspension for Deepavali in October. In 2018, in its judgment in Arjun Gopal and Others vs Union of India and Others, the Court allowed only reduced-emission and “green” crackers, banned joined firecrackers or laris, and imposed a two-hour window. The latest order permits specified next-generation joined green crackers, while declining a total ban on fireworks, invoking public sentiment. Fire crackers are far from the smoking gun of Delhi’s air-quality crisis. Construction dust, vehicles, stubble burning and stagnant, cold air all contribute to winter pollution. But when these push the air towards “severe” levels, crackers can produce an acute spike. In 2025, the first Deepavali after the Court permitted limited use of green crackers, Delhi’s post-Deepavali PM2.5 average reached 488 g/m³, the highest since 2021, while hourly concentrations peaked at 675 g/m³.

There is no gainsaying that green crackers are a pyrrhic green. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research–National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), which promoted them, says the newer generation promises a 45%-60% cut in PM10. These figures, however, do not reflect real-world conditions, and when “cleaner” crackers are burst in greater numbers, the savings in particulate pollution evaporate. This is without accounting for noise pollution. There is also the difficulty of enforcement. The Commission for Air Quality Management has stated that QR codes had been sold to unregistered manufacturers — registered manufacturers reportedly sold them, allowing unauthorised firecrackers to be passed off as certified green crackers. The explosives regulator had no testing facility in Delhi. In 2018 and 2019, the police could not distinguish green crackers from conventional ones. Unless fireworks manufacturing moves into the formal sector, regulations are followed in practice, and awareness of the toll on public health spreads among those who love the sound and fury of crackers, air and noise pollution are here to stay.