The sound of firecrackers was audible from several neighbourhoods on Sunday evening, in defiance of a directive issued by the high court and reiterated by the police, which stated that only green crackers are permitted to be ignited between 8pm and 10pm on Diwali evening.
Diwali is on Monday.
However, residents across the city said they have been hearing sounds of crackers for the last few days. The duration and intensity are increasing as Diwali approaches, they said.
A Behala resident said the sounds of firecrackers could be heard every few minutes from his home on Sunday evening. Two Kasba residents narrated a similar tale.
A woman said she heard a series of crackers going off near the north-bound tracks at Tollygunge Metro station as she was waiting to board a train to Chandni Chowk around 4.30pm on Sunday. “Someone threw it from outside,” she said.
As the evening grew, residents from multiple pockets complained of crackers going off now and then.
A Salt Lake resident said he could hear the noise of firecrackers going off without a break. “It’s a complete mockery of any ban. The same thing continued on Saturday,” said the Salt Lake resident.
The state pollution control board (PCB) received 8 complaints of firecrackers being burst near their homes from residents across the city.
“We received complaints from Beleghata, Salt Lake and Madhyamgram till 9.30pm,” said a PCB official.
A city police officer said only a few complaints were lodged, and at least one of them was from Netaji Nagar.
Green activists apprehend a noisy Diwali this year as a test to determine whether crackers are within the permissible sound limit for crackers — 125 decibel — was not conducted before Bazi Bazars opened this year.
Besides, the city is flooded with small roadside stalls selling all kinds of crackers.
“There is no way one can stop illegal firecrackers from being burst once it has reached people’s hands,” said Biswajit Mukherjee, a former chief law officer of the state pollution control board (PCB).
Naba Datta, secretary of Sabuj Mancha, a platform of organisations working for a better environment, said stalls selling crackers were set up across the city ahead of Diwali,” he said.
In 2023, the state government raised the permissible noise limit for green crackers from 90 decibel to 125 decibel, measured at a distance of 4 metres from the point of bursting.
The two-hour window for the use of green crackers was fixed by Calcutta High Court in 2023. “In the state of West Bengal, only green crackers can be sold and bursting of such crackers shall be allowed for (i) two hours during Deepavali festival from 8pm to 10pm,” the Calcutta High Court bench had stated in its order.
A notification issued on Friday, signed by Calcutta’s police commissioner Manoj Verma, says, “Authorised green firecrackers can be displayed/discharged during the ensuing Kali Puja and Deepawali festivals on 20.10.2025 from 8pm till 10pm only.”