How to Report Illegal Firecracker Noise
Where to complain about illegal firecracker noise: police 112, state pollution board channels and what evidence helps. A civic guide.
We sell crackers on this site, and we still think you should know how to report the ones that break the rules. A neighbour bursting garlands at 2 am, or a sound cracker going off well past the legal window, isn't a grey area. There's an actual court order and a decibel limit behind the timing you're used to hearing about, and there's a real channel for reporting when someone ignores both. This page covers who to contact, what to have ready when you call, and which rules are actually being broken.
Who to Contact
For anything needing an immediate police response, whether that's noise well outside the legal window, a large or ongoing disturbance, or anything that feels urgent, call 112. It's India's single national emergency number under the Emergency Response Support System, and it routes police, fire and ambulance calls, including noise and nuisance complaints. Beyond an emergency call, your local police station can take a direct complaint about a specific address or a repeat offender, and your state or union territory's pollution control board runs its own complaint channel for firecracker noise, separate from the police route. Check that board's current contact details for your state rather than an old number, since these channels can change. Delhi is a notable case: the Delhi Pollution Control Committee has repeatedly imposed additional total bans on manufacturing, storing, selling and bursting all firecrackers, including green crackers, going further than the national baseline, so what's illegal there can be stricter than what's illegal elsewhere.
What to Have Ready
Before you call, note the time as precisely as you can, and the location: which house, which street, which direction the noise is coming from. A short recording on your phone helps, both as evidence and to convey how loud it actually is rather than describing it after the fact. If it's a repeat pattern, the same address, most nights, well past the window, say so. A one-off complaint reads differently from an established pattern, and naming the pattern helps whoever takes the call decide how to respond.
The Rules That Apply
The Supreme Court's 23 October 2018 order fixed the legal bursting window at 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Diwali and similar festivals such as Gurpurab, and a shorter 11:55 pm to 12:30 am window on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. On top of that national floor, states, union territories and city-level pollution control bodies issue their own notifications each year, and these can be stricter — Delhi's repeated additional bans are the clearest example. Because these notifications are re-issued season to season and can change year to year, check the current one from your state's pollution control board or local police rather than assuming a past year's rule still holds. Separately, there's a hard noise ceiling regardless of timing: the Supreme Court prohibits firecrackers exceeding 125 dB(AI) or 145 dB(C) peak, measured 4 metres from the point of bursting — a cracker that's simply too loud is a violation even inside the legal window.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 112 the right number for a noise complaint, or should I call the local station directly? Either can work. 112 is built to route to police for exactly this kind of nuisance complaint and makes sense for anything urgent or ongoing right now; your local station is worth calling directly if it's a specific address you can identify and you'd rather it be logged as a standing complaint than a one-time call.
Does the 8–10 PM window apply everywhere in India the same way? The Supreme Court's order sets that as the national floor for Diwali and similar festivals, but individual states and cities can and do narrow it further with their own yearly notifications — Delhi's additional bans being the strongest example. Check your state's current notification rather than assuming the national window is the only one that applies.
What if the noise is within the time window but still seems excessively loud? Timing and volume are separate rules. The 125 dB(AI) / 145 dB(C) peak limit, measured at 4 metres, applies regardless of what time it is — a cracker that exceeds it is a violation of the noise limit even if it's being burst inside the legal hours.
Check what time can I burst crackers for the timing rules in full, look up your state on the state-by-state cracker rules tracker, and see firecracker decibel limits or the cracker timing checker before you decide whether what you're hearing is actually outside the rules.
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