Mumbai and Delhi among noisiest cities

Not just air pollution, top Indian metros have higher noise pollution levels than most cities, a probable health hazard. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Mar 23, 2011, 21:13:00 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Not just air pollution, top Indian metros have higher noise pollution levels than most cities, a probable health hazard.

In the first ever real-time data of noise pollution in 35 locations around seven cities released on Wednesday, a decade after India notified noise standard, indicated that average day time noise levels in metros was much higher than the national standard of 65 decibel ampere (see graphic).

The World Health Organisation's new guideline says noise above 80 decibels can cause hearing impairment, especially among children, above 30 decibel can cause sleeping disorders and also impacts spoken communication, cardiovascular activity and triggers negative social behavior. "Vehicles are the biggest contributor to high noise level in Indian cities but constant honking aggravates the problem," said S P Gautam chairperson of pollution watchdog, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Most stations where high levels of noise were recorded were next to busy and congested roads. "Noise level testing of vehicles is not mandatory in India like in western countries"

A quick comparison by HT with noise levels in some international cities indicated that those in Indian cities are living in nosiest parts of the global urban landscape. Noise levels in busy parts of London, New York and Beijing was less than Income Tax Office in New Delhi and Bandra in Mumbai.

For environment minister Jairam Ramesh the noise data is a new weapon to push city governments to streamline traffic and ensure that standard prescribed level of 65 decibels is maintained. "As the data is available on real-time, the state governments can devise traffic plans for actual time intervention," he said.

Among Indian cities, locations monitored in Mumbai was nosiest followed by Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. "Achworth Hospital and Bandra in Mumbai constantly has highest noise pollution levels followed by Income Tax Office in Delhi," Gautam said.

Pollution watchdog, the Central Pollution Control Board had installed noise-monitoring stations in seven cities, which would be expanded to 25 cities within a year. The number of monitoring stations in each metro will also be increased for macro level management of noise pollution.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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