Health

AIIMS Reports Surge in Potash‑Related Burns and Carbide Gun Injuries During Diwali

By Ridhima Gupta

AIIMS Delhi has recorded a rise in burn injuries linked to homemade explosives made with potash (potassium chlorate) and sulphur, known as gandhak, during Diwali. In 2024 the Plastic, Reconstructive and Burns Surgery department received 70 firecracker‑related burns and 17 potash‑related burns. In 2025 the department logged 80 firecracker burns and 10 potash burns. An AIIMS RP Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences report showed 40 carbide‑gun injuries in 2025, up from none the previous year, and a total of 200 eye injuries that year compared with 160 in 2024.

Safdarjung Hospital’s Burns and Plastic Surgery department recorded 216 burn cases in 2025, 198 caused by firecrackers and 18 by diyas; potash‑related burns were not separately listed. Seven years of Safdarjung data show Diwali burn cases rising from 145 in 2019 to 216 in 2024.

Doctors warn that homemade firecrackers are dangerous because their composition and explosive force are uncontrolled. Dr Radhika Tandon, AIIMS ophthalmology professor, noted that carbide guns, once used by farmers to scare animals, are now being assembled by children and adults for Diwali celebrations.

Social media videos demonstrate how to make these devices, using potash and sulphur or calcium carbide with water to produce acetylene gas. Carbide guns are sold on e‑commerce sites for ₹800 to ₹7,000.

Following nearly 300 vision‑threatening eye injuries in 2025, the Madhya Pradesh government banned the manufacture, sale, purchase, display and use of carbide guns and prohibited sharing related videos under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.

Doctors urge parents to prevent children from handling explosive chemicals and call for stricter monitoring of online content that encourages dangerous experiments.