Jaipur: A Central government study conducted earlier this year concluded that not a single firecracker available in the market was within the prescribed noise level limits set by the Supreme Court.

A test of 846 firecrackers made by 144 manufacturers in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu – the hub of firecracker production in the country – showed that the minimum noise level these firecrackers generated was 120 decibels (dB) against the Supreme Court-mandated 105dB for a string of crackers. The noise limit for a single cracker is 125dB. The maximum noise these tested firecrackers generated was 146.8dB.