Firecracker Decibel Limits Explained
The Supreme Court's firecracker decibel ceiling: 125 dB(AI)/145 dB(C) pk at 4m, the series-cracker reduction formula, and who tests compliance before sale.
India's firecracker decibel limits come from the Supreme Court, not from any single manufacturer or state government: no cracker sold in India may generate a noise level above 125 dB(AI) or 145 dB(C) pk, measured 4 metres from the point of bursting. That single ceiling applies to every legally sold firecracker, green or conventional, and PESO tests and certifies formulations against it before a manufacturer is allowed to sell.
The short answer:
- The ceiling is 125 dB(AI) or 145 dB(C) pk, measured 4 metres from the point of bursting, set by the Supreme Court's order of 23 October 2018 (Writ Petition (Civil) No. 728 of 2015).
- Joined or series crackers, such as a garland or 1000-wala, don't get 125 dB per bang: the permitted limit drops by 5 log₁₀(N) dB, where N is the number of crackers joined together.
- PESO (Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation) is the agency that tests and certifies a formulation against this ceiling before manufacture is permitted.
- Green crackers are held to the same national ceiling, not a separate, laxer one; PESO's green-cracker approval was conditioned on sitting under it.
- The decibel ceiling is a separate rule from burst-timing restrictions, which come from PESO's own guidance and from state or festival-specific court orders.
On this page
On this page
For the full legal picture beyond noise, see Supreme Court rules on crackers and the guides library.
The national ceiling: 125 dB(AI) or 145 dB(C) pk at 4 metres
The Supreme Court's order of 23 October 2018, in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 728 of 2015, prohibits the manufacture, sale or use of any firecracker that generates a noise level exceeding 125 dB(AI) or 145 dB(C) pk. Both figures are measured at the same point: 4 metres from where the cracker bursts, not from the point of ignition and not from wherever a bystander happens to be standing.
This is one ceiling for the whole country. It doesn't vary by state, by festival, or by product category the way burst-timing rules do. A sound cracker sold in Chennai and one sold in Lucknow answer to the identical 125 dB(AI) / 145 dB(C) pk figure.
Why a garland of crackers has a lower per-unit ceiling
A single firecracker and a hundred-cracker garland are not judged against the same flat number. For a series or joined firecracker, the Court's order reduces the permitted limit by 5 log₁₀(N) dB, where N is the number of crackers joined together in that series.
Work it through with a plain example. A 100-wala garland has N = 100. The base-10 logarithm of 100 is 2, so the reduction is 5 × 2 = 10 dB. That drops the ceiling from 125 dB(AI) down to 115 dB(AI) for that garland, not because each individual cracker inside it is quieter by design, but because the cumulative effect of a hundred bursts in quick succession is treated differently from one isolated bang. The bigger the series, the larger N gets, and the tighter the per-unit ceiling becomes.
This is the rule to know before buying a long 1000-wala string: the manufacturer has to certify the whole series against a reduced ceiling, not the flat 125 dB(AI) figure that applies to a standalone cracker.
Who actually tests and certifies compliance
PESO, the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation, is the implementing agency. It tests and certifies firecrackers, including green crackers, against the Court's noise and composition limits before a manufacturer is permitted to produce them at all. A formulation that hasn't cleared PESO testing has no legal basis to be manufactured, regardless of what the packaging claims about sound level.
PESO's role here sits alongside its separate job of licensing who is allowed to manufacture fireworks in the first place, a distinct process covered in full in our PESO licence explained guide.
Does the ceiling apply to green crackers too?
Yes, and this is worth stating plainly because it's easy to assume "green" means a different, more lenient rule. The same 125 dB(AI) / 145 dB(C) pk ceiling applies to every legally sold cracker, whether it's a conventional formulation or a CSIR-NEERI certified green one. What differs is that PESO's approval of the green-cracker category was itself conditioned on lower noise, alongside lower pollution and freedom from mercury, arsenic and barium, so a certified green sound cracker is built to sit under the same ceiling, typically with more margin than a conventional equivalent. It is quieter, in practice, but "quieter" is not a separate legal limit; it's the same limit with more headroom. Our how green crackers work guide covers the certification standard behind that in full.
The decibel limit is not a timing rule
It's worth separating two rules that get bundled together in casual conversation. The 125 dB(AI) / 145 dB(C) pk figure governs how loud a cracker is allowed to be, full stop, at any time of day it's legally burst. It says nothing about when you're allowed to burst it.
Timing is governed separately. PESO's own official guidance states that sound-emitting firecrackers should not be burst between 10 pm and 6 am. On top of that general guidance, specific state notifications and court orders can set narrower, festival-specific windows that override it locally. Our Supreme Court rules on crackers guide and cracker ban and timing rules by state guide cover those timing rules in full; this page is about the decibel ceiling itself, not when you're allowed to reach it.
What this means when you're buying
You can't measure decibels off a shelf, and no reputable seller expects you to. What you can check is whether the box carries the marks that indicate the product actually went through PESO testing and, for green products, CSIR-NEERI certification, rather than an unverified "low noise" claim printed by whoever packed the box. Our crackers quality check guide and crackers buying guide walk through what to look for before you order.
For a longer joined product like a garland, ask specifically whether the series has been certified against its reduced, series-specific ceiling rather than assuming the flat 125 dB(AI) figure covers it. If you'd rather sidestep the question, our green crackers range and sound crackers range are built to formulations tested against this ceiling, and the loudest crackers in India and the legal limits and do green crackers make less noise posts go further into specific product comparisons.