Kolkata recorded severe air pollution on Diwali night as firecrackers continued to be burst well beyond the Supreme Court's permitted 10 pm deadline.
Environmental group Sabuj Mancha reported widespread violations near and inside hospitals, with noise levels peaking at 96.4 decibels at BC Roy Children's Hospital.
PM2.5 concentrations reached 413 micrograms per cubic metre near Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, nearly seven times India's 24-hour standard.
Air quality deteriorated sharply after 10 pm, with Ballygunge's AQI rising from 100 to above 400 around midnight.
Activists alleged regulatory failures involving NEERI, the West Bengal Pollution Control Board and police, raising concerns over green firecracker certification and enforcement.
Kolkata recorded severe air pollution on the night of Diwali and Kali Puja as firecrackers continued to be burst well past the permitted 10 pm deadline, despite Supreme Court restrictions on their use.
Environmental activists monitoring the city on November 8, 2026 reported widespread violations, particularly around hospitals, where firecrackers were allegedly burst even within hospital premises.
The environmental group Sabuj Mancha, which has monitored pollution around Kolkata's hospitals for more than a decade, described the violations as among the worst it had recorded in recent years.
The Supreme Court's October 29, 2026 order restricted firecracker use to specified hours of 8pm-10pm and prohibited their use within 300 metres of hospitals and other sensitive locations. West Bengal authorities had also issued restrictions ahead of the festival.
Sabuj Mancha teams visited five hospitals across north and south Kolkata and reported violations of noise and air pollution restrictions.
“Forget about the 100- or 300-metre restriction zones, bombs were burst even within 30 metres from healthcare units like Dr B C Roy Children’s Hospital,” said Naba Dutta, environmentalist and secretary of Sabuj Mancha.
Dr Dulal Bose, a physician and president of Sabuj Mancha, alleged that medical students burst firecrackers inside the RG Kar hospital campus, while hospital staff set off noisy fireworks, including rockets, after midnight at MR Bangur Hospital.
He also reported frequent firecracker use near Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan late at night.
“Patients are most vulnerable and should be protected at any cost; unfortunately, they cannot complain,” Bose said.
The parent of a one-year-old girl receiving treatment at BC Roy Children's Hospital said loud explosions had continued since 7 pm, with some firecrackers landing close to the hospital building.
Measurements taken by Sabuj Mancha indicated high noise and particulate pollution levels around hospitals.
At BC Roy Children's Hospital, ambient noise averaged 71.3 decibels, against a permissible limit of 50 decibels, and peaked at 96.4 decibels, according to environmental analyst Sudipta Bhattacharya.
PM2.5 concentrations reached 340 micrograms per cubic metre, more than five times India's 24-hour standard of 60 micrograms.
Outside RG Kar hospital's intensive cardiac care unit, average noise levels reached 77.3 decibels, peaking at 94.7 decibels. PM2.5 concentrations were nearly six times the national standard. An increase of 10 decibels is generally perceived as roughly twice as loud, illustrating the extent of the noise pollution recorded near the hospital.
At Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, noise levels exceeded 70 decibels after 10 pm, compared with the night-time standard of 40 decibels for silence zones. Peak noise reached 92.8 decibels, while fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations rose to 413 micrograms per cubic metre.
These were short-term measurements and are not directly comparable with the 24-hour national PM2.5 standard.
Complaints about firecracker use continued late into the night across Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal, including Howrah, Hooghly and Bankura.
The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) received 57 complaints overnight, 37 of them after 10 pm. Sabuj Mancha received another 24 complaints from Kolkata, with a similar pattern of late-night violations.
Air quality readings also deteriorated sharply.
According to Central Pollution Control Board data cited by an environmental expert, the Air Quality Index (AQI) at Ballygunge rose from 100 at 10 pm to above 400, classified as 'severe', around midnight.
Similar increases were reported at the city's seven automatic air quality monitoring stations, with PM2.5 identified as the main pollutant.
An official from the state environment department said wind conditions had helped disperse some pollutants, preventing an even greater deterioration in air quality.
Environmental campaigners have also raised concerns about the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute's (NEERI) decision not to provide QR codes for green firecrackers sold in West Bengal this year.
Minutes of an October 28 coordination meeting, accessed by this reporter, recorded a NEERI chief scientist stating that QR codes would no longer be used to verify green firecrackers.
Instead, the institute would rely on its list of approved manufacturers. According to NEERI, approximately 1,700 manufacturers have been approved nationally, including 251 in West Bengal.
A senior NEERI official confirmed that the institute would not provide QR codes.
However, environmental lawyers argue that this conflicts with Supreme Court directions requiring certified green firecracker packaging to carry product-specific QR codes.
The court's October 29 order specified that scanning the code should reveal the manufacturer, NEERI registration, relevant licences, formulation and test certificate.
Although the order concerned Delhi-NCR, environmental law experts argue that earlier nationwide directions make the QR-code requirement applicable elsewhere.
Biswajit Mukherjee, a retired chief law officer of the WBPCB, described NEERI's position as a violation of the court's directions and said he intended to challenge it legally.
Environmental activists also questioned whether firecracker manufacturers in West Bengal had obtained the necessary pollution control approvals.
According to information presented at the October 28 meeting, only six of the 251 NEERI-approved manufacturers in the state had obtained the WBPCB's mandatory no-objection certificate.
A pollution board representative reportedly urged manufacturers to apply for the required approvals.
Mukherjee said the board should have enforced these requirements more strictly.
Activists also criticised police enforcement during Diwali.
“The presence of police personnel on the road, later in the night, also seemed to be much less than earlier years,” Dutta said.
Bose said Sabuj Mancha had submitted its concerns to the state environment minister.
