No Pune Ganpati mandal louder than a food blender this year... sound levels lowest in 2 decades

When measured against data collected by the COEP on sound pollution during the Ganesh festival for the past 16 years, 2017 has seen the lowest noise levels

Pune Thundering dhols, tolling tashas and the incessant EDM beat of the latest Bollywood groove it has not been this Ganeshotsav in Pune. At least not at the sound levels of anything compared to the last 16 years.

Police official check noise using a decibel meter in Pune on Saturday, September 2.(Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

Anecdotal evidence gathered from the police and the College of Engineering Pune (COEP), both of which, have been involved in tracking the noise pollution in the city during this year’s Ganeshotsav, suggests the noise levels have been at the lowest in the last two decades.

Ganesh mandals have cooperated with the police and both now believe the crescendo of sound that comes cascading down on the city in the climatic last two days of the festival, as we head to the immersion day (visarjan), will now be relatively low.

This again is using data collected by the COEP on sound pollution for the past 16 years.

Data collected by COEP students showed that in 2001, an average of 90.7 dB of noise was measured during the immersion ceremony, which in 2004 increased to 94.1dB.

The levels then crossed 100dB in 2010 to reach as high as 114.4 dB in 2013.

Last year, the highest noise level was at Holkar Chowk at 96 dB.

On Saturday, sound levels measured by COEP students from Alka Talkies to the Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya area, went as high as 88.138dB, specifically near the Maharashtra Chitpawan Sangha chowk.