NEW DELHI: The bursts came in waves on Diwali night in Karol Bagh. A firecracker would go quiet and another would go off and the sound carried from the street into bedrooms. In some parts of the neighbourhood, residents said, the gaps between explosions were the only respite until the early hours.Once again, Karol Bagh registered the highest Diwali noise reading among the 26 locations monitored by Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). At 89.1 dB(A), it was barely below last year’s 89.2.The prescribed limits for commercial areas are 65 dB(A) by day and 55 at night. This year, noise levels rose at 19 city stations compared with 2025.On Pusa Road, what stood out was how long the bursts kept coming. Ravindra Lal Dhawan, who has lived in the area for more than 70 years, said he usually spends most of Diwali at home and could hear the crackers clearly indoors.“It was especially loud at night, and the crackers went on till morning. It was very difficult to sleep,” he said. “The noise gets louder during the festive season. Even when you’re sitting at home, you feel it. It causes a lot of trouble for older people, and it’s especially hard on those who are unwell.”The late-night bursts also raised questions about enforcement. Taran Deep, a Karol Bagh resident who has a shop in Gaffar Market, wondered who was checking which firecrackers people were setting off.“There is massive bursting of crackers even when govt says only green crackers are allowed. Who will come and check whether they are green or not? It went on non-stop throughout the area till the wee hours,” he said.While Taran Deep wondered what could be done on the street, Amrit Kumar was trying to see what could be done inside his room. The UPSC aspirant, who lives in rented accommodation in Karol Bagh, shut the windows to shield his cat, Shiro, from the blasts.“It is particularly disturbing for animals. I kept Shiro inside one room with all the windows closed, but still cracker sounds shook our windows. They feel very scared by the noise,” he said.According to some residents, the chaos in Karol Bagh is part of an ordinary day. As the shops open and the lanes fill, shoppers weave between vehicles and delivery vans inch through traffic.At busy crossings, where people on foot look for a gap and vehicles queue, the honking cuts through the market chatter. How much of the din reaches indoors depends on the stretch, residents said, but the congestion that feeds it returns every market day.For Murli Mani, aged around 70, the crossings on major roads are chokepoints. A footbridge, he said, would give pedestrians another way across and reduce congestion, which eventually contribute to noise.On his stretch, however, he said traffic generally moves so slowly that drivers have little reason to honk. “The noise I find hardest to ignore is during Kanwar Yatra processions when they carry huge loudspeakers,” he said.