CPCB irked at noise levels at airports

The noise levels have been found to be higher than the notified ambient noise standards, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Dec 20, 2006, 21:53:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The increased air traffic at India’s major airports is now a cause of concern for the environmentalists. The time an aircraft hovers over the airport, waiting to land, the emission levels in the air increases and it also causes more noise levels.

In monitoring of noise levels done by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in some residential colonies around Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Airport in Kolkata, the noise levels were found to be higher than the notified ambient noise standards. The notified noise level for residential areas is 55 decibel during day hours and 45 db during night hours.

According to the monitoring, the noise levels, especially during peak landing hours, were much higher than the standard prescribed. "The increase in the air traffic at the airports, particularly in metro cities, is one of the major sources contributing to noise levels in the vicinity of airports," said minister of State for Environment and Forest Namo Narian Meena, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Environment officials, however, added the monitoring agencies have observed an increase in noise pollution levels in the past one and a half years since the air traffic has increased. "There is a correlation between the two. But, further studies are required to scientifically justify the link," a senior ministry official said.

To find the exact cause of higher noise levels in residential colonies near airports, the CPCB has commissioned a study to the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, to determine the cause of increase in noise pollution levels in residential colonies around Delhi’s international airport. The institute will also monitor ambient noise levels in vicinity of the airport. The study report is expected by next year.

Ministry officials also said that the presence of more aircrafts in air would obviously lead to more emission of polluting substances but no study has been done to analyse the level of air pollution it causes. The need for such a study was not felt, an official said, as the pollutants disperse into higher air, thereby not directing affecting human health.

In a bid to strengthen, monitoring of pollution - air and noise - around airports the board is developing procedure to monitor the pollution levels. "We have initiated preparation of a document on ‘procedure for monitoring ambient noise levels around airports due to aircrafts’, which would be finalised shortly," an official said.

Email : chetan@hindustantimes.com.

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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