The Dr Om Prakash Eye Institute here has received 36 patients since Dussehra, majority of them children, who received serious eye injuries due to bursting of crackers.

The injuries range from permanent loss of vision to perforating wounds.

According to doctors in the hospital, most of these injuries were due to burns and entry of foreign bodies into the eye. They said these patients had been rendered unfit for any profession which requires binocular vision — armed forces, pilots, police, driving, surgery et al.

Dr Meena Kumari, an ophthalmologist who is treating these patients, said: “Children should burst crackers under strict supervision of their parents. Most of these accidents have occurred when the children were not being watched upon.”

The injured are mainly boys — 10 to 14 years old, she added. “Each year, thousands of people lose their vision due to such incidents,” said Dr Rohit Om Prakash, director of the institute. He appealed to the Government to form cracker regulations and hold awareness campaigns to prevent such tragedies.

According to the records available with the hospital, 90 per cent of the injured were primarily onlookers or passersby. “The complaints were generally about vision problem, redness, watering or inability to open the eye. Eye injuries in any form can lead to cataract, retinal edema, retinal detachment, infection or total disfigurement of the eye,” said Dr Prakash.