Although the government has allowed the sale of 'green crackers' which supposedly result in less noise pollution and have less harmful chemicals, Awaaz Foundation has claimed that these do contain banned chemicals, including barium nitrate, potassium nitrate and sulphur.

The Supreme Court in October 2018 had banned the use of barium nitrate. Some of the green crackers mentioned by Awaaz also have the stamp of NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute), which had developed a barium-free formulation. The NGO has written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray regarding the same.