Diwali · Weddings · New Year
A festival of light. Not of fear.
Every cracker is louder to a dog, a cat, a bird or a cow than it is to us, and they cannot know it will stop. Here is how to keep the animals around you safe, what Indian law allows, and how to celebrate without the noise.
How loud
To them, it is louder.
Every ten decibels is ten times the sound. The bang of a single cracker at the legal limit carries ten thousand times the sound of heavy traffic.
- A conversation60dB
- Heavy traffic. Hours of it harm hearing85dB
- The most a cracker may make in India, 4 metres away125dB
- The loudest single cracker in Maharashtra's 2013 tests132dB
About these numbers
The limit is 125 dB(AI), or 145 dB(C) at the peak, measured 4 metres from where the cracker bursts. A cracker louder than that may not be made, sold or burst in India.
When the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board tested 89 cracker brands in 2013, 30 broke the limit. The loudest single cracker reached 132.4 dB(A), and one bomb peaked at 152 dB(C).
Who it hurts
Every animal in earshot.
Not only the dog on your sofa. Every animal within a few streets hears every cracker.
Dogs and cats at home.
Many hide, shake, pant, stop eating or try to escape: through a window, off a balcony, out of a gate left open.
Dogs and cats on the street.
They have no door to shut. They run onto roads and into other dogs' streets, and many are never seen again. Some have crackers thrown at them, or tied to them.
Birds.
Crackers go off when birds are roosting. They take off in the dark, fly into wires and walls, and leave their nests and chicks behind.
Cows, horses and donkeys.
Tied up, they cannot get away, and they hurt themselves pulling. A horse in a baraat stands beside the crackers and the band; a frightened horse bolts into the crowd.
Animals in the wild.
Near forests, lakes and sanctuaries, the noise and the smoke drive animals away from where they feed and breed.
What to do
Keep them safe.
A little planning before the festival spares an animal a night of terror.
Before
- Walk your dog early, before the first crackers, and keep the lead on.
- Put a collar with your phone number on every dog and cat.
- Make a den in the quietest room: bedding, curtains drawn, a fan or the TV on.
- Shut windows, balcony doors and gates.
- If your animal panics every year, see your vet now. Never give a human medicine.
On the night
- Stay home with them if you can. Speak calmly and carry on as normal.
- Let them hide. Do not pull them out or scold them.
- Watch the door: guests and deliveries are when animals bolt.
- Keep cats in. Keep dogs off terraces and balconies.
After
- Sweep up spent crackers, wire and paper. Dogs and cows eat them.
- Look under cars, in drains and stairwells for animals hiding or hurt.
- A burn: cool running water for ten to twenty minutes, then a vet. First aid for burns
- Lost? Tell your neighbours, local groups and your nearest PFA unit at once.
For the dogs and cats on your street
- Feed them earlier in the evening, and leave water out.
- Leave a gate, a garage or a stairwell open where they can shelter. Do not tie them up or shut them out for the night.
- Ask your neighbours and your RWA to burst crackers away from where the animals sleep, away from trees with nests, and away from cowsheds.
- The next morning, look for the ones you know. One who is missing may be hiding, hurt, close by.
Cows, horses and birds
- Bring cattle and horses under a roof for the night, tied so that they cannot hurt themselves if they pull.
- Ask a wedding party not to burst crackers beside a horse, or to have no horse at all.
- No crackers near trees, ponds or lakes where birds roost.
- No sky lanterns: they come down burning on roofs, haystacks and trees, and their wire traps birds and cattle.
When
Not only Diwali.
Crackers go off across the year in India. Plan the same way every time.
- Diwali
- Gurpurab
- Christmas
- New Year's Eve
- Wedding season
- Temple festivals
- Cricket wins
- Election results
The law
What the law says.
Crackers are allowed in India only at set hours, only up to a set loudness, and never at an animal.
No crackers from 10 pm to 6 am.
And none at any hour in a silence zone: 100 metres around a hospital, a school, a court or a place of worship. Supreme Court, In re Noise Pollution, 2005.
Two hours on a festival night.
On Diwali and Gurpurab, crackers only between 8 and 10 pm, or the two hours your state sets. On Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, 11:55 pm to 12:30 am. No series crackers (laris). In Delhi-NCR, only green crackers, and only on the days the Court allows. Supreme Court, Arjun Gopal v Union of India, 2018.
No cracker louder than 125 dB at 4 metres.
A louder one may not be made, sold or burst. Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986.
Hurting an animal with a cracker is a crime.
Throwing a cracker at an animal, or tying one to it, is cruelty under Section 11(1)(a) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Where it maims or kills, Section 325 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita carries up to five years, and the police must register an FIR.
An animal being hurt right now? Call 112 first.
Celebrate
Light it up. Keep it quiet.
Lights, colour and the people you love make the festival. The noise was never the point.
Diyas, lamps and lights.
The festival of lights needs nothing louder.
Rangoli, flowers and sweets.
Make the evening about the people you share it with.
One show for the whole colony.
A laser or drone show, in an open ground, at a set hour, instead of crackers on every street.
Green crackers still bang.
They are made to give off less smoke. To a dog, the bang is what hurts.
Sivagangai, Tamil Nadu
Around the Vettangudi bird sanctuary, the people of Vettangudipatti and Kollukudipatti have kept Diwali without crackers for years, for the birds that come there to breed. They keep their weddings and temple festivals quiet too. The story