Diwali Firecracker Injuries: The Data
A sourced synthesis of firecracker injury data from Indian hospitals — burns and eye injuries, who is affected, and how to stay safe. Updated each 2026.
Not medical advice. This page synthesises published hospital and news reports on Diwali firecracker injuries for informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical guidance. If you or someone near you is injured by a firecracker, stop bursting crackers, do not rub the eye or rinse a burn with ice, and get to a hospital or call emergency services immediately.
Last verified: 2026. Figures below are drawn from named, dated hospital and news reports and a peer-reviewed study, cited individually; this page is refreshed as new Diwali-season data is published.
The short answer:
- Bengaluru's six major eye hospitals logged 174 firecracker-related eye injuries around Diwali 2024, with 93 of the victims children (Deccan Herald, 3 November 2024).
- AIIMS Delhi's ophthalmology department treated 190 firecracker and carbide-gun eye injuries during Diwali 2025 (a 19% rise on 2024's 160 cases) and performed roughly 60 paediatric eye surgeries (IANS, 29 October 2025).
- Chandigarh's Sector 16 hospital and PGI's Advanced Eye Centre together logged 129 firecracker-related cases at Diwali 2024, continuing a fall from 177 (2023) and 179 (2022); 12 of PGI's 21 eye-injury patients were 14 or younger, the youngest a 3-year-old girl (The Tribune, 2 November 2024).
- A six-year peer-reviewed study of 646 patients in Northern India found 62% of victims were under 18, 35% were bystanders rather than the person lighting the cracker, and two-thirds of injuries were severe "open globe" wounds (PMC, 2022).
- The same study found a 52.7% drop in case volume after Delhi-NCR's 2017 firecracker restrictions, the clearest evidence to date that legal limits reduce injury counts, not just emissions.
On this page
On this page
For step-by-step care after a burn, read first aid for cracker burns. For prevention at home, see cracker safety rules for kids. More sourced figures live on the crackers data & research hub.
What the hospital numbers actually say
No national body publishes one consolidated Diwali-injury count for India; every figure on this page comes from an individual hospital, hospital network, or city's own reporting, released as a news story in the days after the festival. That makes year-on-year city comparisons useful but nationwide totals impossible to state honestly.
Bengaluru's count is the most granular of the three: six eye hospitals, including Narayana Nethralaya, which alone treated 73 cases between 31 October and 3 November 2024, jointly reported 174 firecracker-related eye injuries that Diwali, with 93 involving children. At Narayana Nethralaya, 35 of its 73 patients were children, 14 of them under 10, and nine suffered serious injuries such as corneal tears, retinal detachments, or lens dislocation.
Delhi's AIIMS reported the largest single-hospital count: 190 eye injuries from firecrackers and carbide "guns" during Diwali 2025, an increase of 19% over the 160 cases the same department saw in 2024. Carbide-gun injuries, from home-made devices that release acetylene gas on contact with water and detonate violently, accounted for 18-20 of the 190 cases. Just under half the total, 97 cases, presented on Diwali day itself, and 45% of patients needed immediate surgery for open-globe injuries.
Chandigarh's tri-city hospital network (Sector 16 Hospital plus PGI's Advanced Eye Centre) recorded 129 firecracker-related cases in 2024, down from 177 in 2023 and 179 in 2022, a trend the Tribune's reporting attributed in part to growing public awareness and the wider availability of green crackers. Of PGI's 21 eye-injury cases, 12 were children aged 14 or under, the youngest a 3-year-old girl, and 8 patients came from Chandigarh itself while 13 travelled in from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan for treatment.
Who gets hurt
Children are disproportionately represented in every city's count, but the most rigorous evidence on why comes from a six-year peer-reviewed study of 646 patients (667 eyes) treated across Northern India between 2014 and 2019, published in 2022. It found a median patient age of 14 and a male-to-female ratio of 4.9:1: boys are hurt far more often than girls, largely because they handle and light more crackers.
The bystander figure is the study's most policy-relevant finding: 35% of victims were not lighting the cracker themselves. They were standing nearby, often on a balcony, terrace, or street, when someone else's cracker malfunctioned or was thrown. Bengaluru's 2024 reporting echoes this directly, flagging fireworks lit and thrown from apartment balconies as a specific hazard to uninvolved bystanders below.
What kind of injuries
Open-globe injuries, where the full thickness of the eyeball wall is breached, accounted for 66.8% of cases in the Northern India study, and 28% of injured eyes could not perceive light at all on arrival, a marker of severe trauma with a poor visual prognosis. AIIMS Delhi's 2025 data shows the same severity pattern: 45% of its 190 patients needed immediate surgery, 17% had injuries in both eyes, and half presented with moderate-to-severe visual impairment.
Burns are the other major category, distinct from eye trauma in mechanism but overlapping in cause: sparklers, ground spinners ("chakri"), and hand-held items account for most contact and flash burns, while aerial shells, bombs, and malfunctioning or "duplicate" crackers cause the more severe blast and shrapnel injuries that hospitals in all three cities logged as burns cases alongside their eye-injury counts.
Does regulation reduce injuries
This is the one place the data supports a causal claim, not just a correlation. The Northern India study compared the three years before Delhi-NCR's 2017 firecracker restrictions (2014–2016: 456 cases) against the three years after (2017–2019: 211 cases): a 52.7% drop in case volume at the same hospitals, alongside measurably better presenting vision in the eyes that were still injured. Chandigarh's own three-year decline, from 179 to 177 to 129 cases across 2022–2024, points the same direction, though its reporting credits a mix of factors, awareness campaigns and the shift toward green crackers, rather than a single legal change, so it should be read as supporting evidence, not proof of one specific cause.
Prevention that the data supports
The reported circumstances behind these injuries repeat across every city's data, which means the same handful of precautions address most of them:
- Supervise children directly, rather than allowing them to light crackers unsupervised. The age pattern in every dataset here (median age 14, over 60% under 18) says this is where the risk concentrates.
- Keep bystanders at a real distance, especially from balconies and terraces over streets. More than a third of eye-injury victims in the Northern India study were people who weren't handling a cracker at all.
- Never approach a "dud." A cracker that has failed to go off can still detonate; walk away and wait, don't relight or inspect it.
- Treat carbide-gun devices as a distinct, higher-severity risk. AIIMS Delhi's data separates these home-made acetylene devices from standard firecrackers because their injury pattern is worse.
- Have a plan before you light anything: water nearby, a clear space, and, for burns and eye injuries, the first steps already in mind rather than improvised in the moment. See our first-aid guide.
The numbers at a glance
| Metric | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bengaluru firecracker-related eye injuries | 174 (93 children) | 2024 | Deccan Herald, 3 Nov 2024 |
| Narayana Nethralaya (Bengaluru) sub-count | 73 cases, 35 children | 2024 | Deccan Herald, 3 Nov 2024 |
| AIIMS Delhi firecracker/carbide-gun eye injuries | 190 (~60 child surgeries) | 2025 | IANS, 29 Oct 2025 |
| AIIMS Delhi year-on-year change | +19% (vs. 160 in 2024) | 2025 vs 2024 | IANS, 29 Oct 2025 |
| Chandigarh (Sector 16 + PGI) firecracker cases, city total | 129 | 2024 | The Tribune, 2 Nov 2024 |
| Chandigarh city total, prior years | 177 (2023); 179 (2022) | 2022–2023 | The Tribune, 2 Nov 2024 |
| PGI Chandigarh eye-injury patients aged ≤14 | 12 of 21 | 2024 | The Tribune, 2 Nov 2024 |
| Northern India study: victims under 18 | 62% | 2014–2019 | PMC, published 2022 |
| Northern India study: victims who were bystanders | 35% | 2014–2019 | PMC, published 2022 |
| Northern India study: open-globe injuries | 66.8% of cases | 2014–2019 | PMC, published 2022 |
| Case-count drop after 2017 Delhi-NCR restrictions | 456 to 211 cases (-52.7%) | 2014–16 vs 2017–19 | PMC, published 2022 |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people are injured by firecrackers on Diwali in India?
There is no single national count. Individual hospitals and hospital networks report their own numbers each year: 174 eye injuries across six Bengaluru hospitals in 2024, 190 at AIIMS Delhi alone in 2025, and 129 across Chandigarh's main hospitals in 2024. The honest picture is city-by-city, not one all-India total.
Who is most likely to be injured by a firecracker?
Children and teenagers. A six-year Northern India study found a median victim age of 14, with 62% of patients under 18, and boys injured roughly five times as often as girls. More than a third of victims, 35% in that same study, weren't lighting the cracker themselves; they were bystanders.
Are carbide guns more dangerous than regular firecrackers?
AIIMS Delhi's 2025 data treats them as a distinct, higher-severity category. These home-made devices produce acetylene gas on contact with water and detonate with more force than typical firecrackers, and doctors quoted in the coverage warned of a higher risk of permanent vision loss from them specifically.
Do firecracker bans or restrictions actually reduce injuries?
The best available evidence says yes. The Northern India study compared hospital case counts before and after Delhi-NCR's 2017 firecracker restrictions and found a 52.7% drop, from 456 cases in 2014–2016 to 211 in 2017–2019, along with better presenting vision among the eyes still injured. Chandigarh's own three-year decline (179 to 129 cases) points the same way, alongside rising green-cracker use and awareness campaigns.
What should I do immediately if someone is injured by a firecracker?
This page is informational, not medical advice. Do not rub an injured eye or apply ice directly to a burn. Move away from further cracker activity, keep the person calm, and get to a hospital or call emergency services without delay. Our first-aid guide covers immediate steps in more detail, but a real injury always needs professional medical evaluation, not home treatment alone.
For prevention steps and safe-handling rules for children, see cracker safety rules for kids. Browse more sourced statistics on the crackers data & research hub.
Written by the buyonlinecrackers.com editorial team from named, dated hospital and news reports and a peer-reviewed study, cited individually above. This is not medical advice. Refreshed as new Diwali-season data is published; last verified 2026.
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