Finding the right middle ground on bursting firecrackers to keep Delhi and other urban areas safe from harmful emissions, while addressing the aspirations of festival revelers and safeguarding the industry, remains a policy and regulatory minefield.
Policymakers have seldom gone the distance, wary of political backlash. Judicial interventions, meanwhile, have swung from partial curbs to blanket bans, with limited impact on the ground. The firecracker industry, which provides the festival sparkle but also contributes to particulate pollution, is yet to fully adapt to green crackers amid lax enforcement.
Hearing a long-pending case filed by three infants over the health hazards caused by firecrackers, the Supreme Court on September 30 said it would neither impose a complete ban on crackers nor allow round-the-clock fireworks.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale said a total ban could hurt people's sentiments, while allowing fireworks throughout the day would have a significant impact on the elderly, sick and children.
“Total ban will affect sentiments. And allowing them throughout the day will have a huge impact on every other living being including the old, sick and children. We need to find a solution by which we can give a specified time,” the bench said.
The court was considering a proposal to allow 'next-generation joined green crackers', developed in collaboration with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI). Colloquially called laris, these newly formulated linked fireworks use reduced quantities of barium salts to lower emissions.
Barium salts give fireworks their vivid green colour and also provide oxygen to help the powder burn rapidly. However, burning barium releases toxic particulate matter into the air, which can harm the lungs and heart.
Ingestion of firecrackers containing barium can also cause a rapid drop in blood potassium levels, known as hypokalemia. This can lead to muscle weakness, heart rhythm problems and, in severe cases, breathing failure.
The Supreme Court's green-cracker framework, introduced in 2017, requires fireworks to exclude harmful chemicals such as barium, lithium, arsenic, antimony, lead and mercury, which can affect the lungs and eyes.
However, an NGO's survey report submitted to the Supreme Court in 2021 found that most products sold as green crackers contained banned chemicals. The report also flagged the use of fake QR codes on cracker boxes.
The shortcomings in enforcement and certification led to the development of what are now being described as 'next-generation joined green crackers'.
CSIR-NEERI has developed 11 new formulations for joined crackers in its laboratories, with barium used sparingly in their compositions.
The new formulations differ from conventional joined crackers in shell and tube size, chemical composition, bursting duration and frequency. According to the Centre, these changes can reduce noise, particulate emissions and solid waste generation.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that a limited and conditional relaxation could be considered for specified 'next-generation joined green crackers' recommended by CSIR-NEERI.
According to NEERI's Interim Report on Green Firecrackers: Gen-2, new-generation formulations using reduced quantities of barium salts/nitrates in combination with other oxidisers achieved reductions of 45-60 per cent in PM10 and PM2.5 emissions compared with conventional formulations.
The report said the reduced-barium formulations not only lowered particulate emissions but also reduced the chemical and environmental footprint of barium compared with conventional firecrackers.
The court was considering a clutch of applications seeking implementation of its October 23, 2018 judgment, which took note of deteriorating air quality in major cities.
In that judgment, the court prohibited the production of traditional firecrackers, including joined crackers or series crackers, using barium or its salts.
At the same time, it allowed community bursting of crackers during specified time windows — from 8 pm to 10 pm on Diwali and other festival days, and for half an hour after midnight on Christmas and New Year's Day.
The court had held that only green crackers and improved crackers with reduced emissions could be manufactured and sold.
In 2020, the National Green Tribunal banned the sale of all firecrackers in districts where the air quality index was worse than 'poor', or AQI 201 and above. The Supreme Court upheld the ban in September 2021 and said its directions had to be implemented by authorities in letter and spirit.
In December 2021, the Supreme Court also justified restrictions on the manufacture and sale of traditional firecrackers, saying celebrations could not come at the cost of other people's lives.
“We are not averse to celebrations, but we cannot celebrate at the cost of the lives of others… We can have celebrations without noise too,” a bench of Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna had said.
In 2023, the Supreme Court refused to permit the production and sale of green firecrackers “for the present” and rejected a plea seeking the manufacture and use of firecrackers containing barium.
The court also declined to interfere with the Delhi government's decision to ban the use of firecrackers in the national capital ahead of Diwali.
Despite the ban, firecrackers were burst extensively during Diwali in 2024, triggering severe air pollution in Delhi. The Supreme Court subsequently pulled up the Delhi government and police over the failure to implement the ban.
The court also asked the Delhi government to consider whether a permanent ban on firecrackers was required, stressing that every citizen had a constitutional right to live in a pollution-free environment.
In December 2024, the Supreme Court directed Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to impose a complete ban on firecrackers until January 1, 2025, in line with Delhi's stringent year-round prohibition aimed at curbing air pollution.
In September 2025, the court also called for a pan-India ban on firecrackers.
Several states and cities imposed restrictions on firecrackers over the years.
In 2021, the Delhi and Odisha governments announced complete bans on the sale and use of firecrackers during the festive season. The Delhi government also prohibited their storage.
In November 2021, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar appealed to citizens to limit noise and air pollution while bursting crackers during Diwali.
In 2023, the Karnataka government directed officials to restrict the bursting of crackers to between 8 pm and 10 pm during Diwali. The move came after a fire at a cracker godown in Attibele killed 17 people.
In 2024, the Gurugram district magistrate banned the production and sale of firecrackers containing barium salts from October 22, 2024, to January 31, 2025.
The Delhi government also announced a complete ban on firecrackers until January 1, 2025. However, the ban was widely flouted, with manufacturers selling prohibited crackers and people bursting them during Diwali.
In September 2025, the Supreme Court allowed certified manufacturers to produce green firecrackers in Delhi-NCR but barred their sale in the region.
The court said only manufacturers authorised by NEERI and the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) could produce them.
A month later, the court permitted the sale and bursting of green crackers in Delhi-NCR during Diwali, subject to conditions aimed at “balancing traditions with environmental and health concerns”.
It also specified time limits for bursting green crackers on the day before Diwali and on the festival day.
The relaxation was intended to create a controlled framework for the use of certified green crackers.
However, crackers of various kinds flooded the market and were widely burst during Diwali. The air quality in the national capital subsequently deteriorated sharply, with Delhi recording its most polluted Diwali in five years.
The episode once again highlighted the gap between judicial directions, certification requirements and their enforcement on the ground.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider the issue of barium in firecrackers on October 15.
The court has directed the Central Pollution Control Board to complete testing of low-barium formulations and submit its report before the next hearing.
The outcome could determine whether the court moves towards a more tightly regulated framework for next-generation green crackers, balancing environmental and health concerns with festival traditions and the interests of the firecracker industry.