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‘Spent last three days without any sleep’: Delhi’s Shahdara worst affected by Kanwar ‘music’
Among all the places, Shahdara has had it the worst, with the noise pollution reaching as high as 87.5 decibels during the day.
East Delhi’s Shahdara turned into a deafening zone as thousands of Kanwariyas, armed with blaring boomboxes, converged at this choke point en route to their homes in nearby parts of Delhi, as well as far off places in northern Haryana like Bahadurgarh and Rohtak, and even some parts of Rajasthan.
Among all the places, Shahdara has had it the worst, with the noise pollution reaching as high as 87.5 decibels during the day on Tuesday (16-hour average from 6am to 10pm).
Shahdara, one of the most commonly used routes for the Kanwar yatra, turns into a 24x7 passageway of non-stop religious processions as trucks and vehicles are laden with several boomboxes playing deafening music as they pass through the area.
Residents say they, especially affecting children and the elderly, get no respite from early morning until late evening.
“It felt like we were living inside a DJ club. We are often not able to hear ourselves talk…the business has also been affected. It seemed that the loudspeakers were just outside our windows. Even with all the windows shut, we could feel the vibration in our walls, and spent the last three days without any sleep,” said a resident of Seelampur who runs a store in the area. The resident did not want to be named.
Another resident, a retired teacher who lives in Kabul Nagar, said the main road close to their house has been taken over by loud unbearable music for the last four days. “I am a Hindu myself and a very religious person, but this kind of devotion which badly affects others is something that I do not support. The songs are still being played at full blast which sometimes makes us feel that our house is shaking,” the retired teacher said.
Many shopkeepers in the area said they have seen a dip in the business due to the overwhelming noise and crowd. “The police are deployed all around but they don’t make any effort to control the volume of boomboxes,” said a shopkeeper in Navin Shahdara.
The GT Road stretch, Vivek Vihar underpass, and the Seelampur T-Point are among the most congested and noise-impacted sections. Many kanwar camps have been set up along the road where returning kanwariyas often pause briefly before heading towards their hometowns.
A senior police officer from Shahdara district, associated with the Kanwar Yatra security arrangement plans, said the decked-up vehicles of kanwariyas, fitted with a series of boomboxes, were entering Delhi from neighbouring states despite discussions and verbal agreements with their counterparts from other states that they would not allow any vehicles violating the sound pollution and Motor Vehicle Act norms. Shahdara in Delhi shares borders with Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.
“Despite discussions, thousands of such vehicles playing loud music entered Shahdara through the borders, which meant that the states’ police made no efforts in controlling them. In Delhi, we took certain measures to tackle the situation. It included requesting kanwariyas to lower the volume to disconnecting the cables of the boomboxes, but we took cautions while taking such actions to avoid any unnecessary confrontation or violence from kanwariyas. The situation could have been better had our counterparts in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand taken some strict steps,” the officer added.
(With inputs from Karn Pratap Singh)
