Mumbai’s quietest Diwali in 5 yrs: MPCB
Officials say there was a 50% decline in use of firecrackers in the city and 30% decrease across Maharashtra
MUMBAI: Noise levels across the city this Diwali were the lowest in five years but were still above permissible limits for residential areas and silence zones, says the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board’s (MPCB) noise monitoring report.
MPCB officials said there was a 50% decline in use of firecrackers across Mumbai and 30% decline across the state.
MPCB monitored noise across 158 locations in the state, of which, 45 were in Mumbai.
The report mentioned that the area around Metro Cinema was the loudest on Diwali (November 7) with average decibel (db) levels at 78 db during the day (as loud as a washing machine) and 71 db (as loud as a vacuum cleaner) at night.
Majaswadi in Jogeshwari was the second loudest during the day on Diwali at 77 db followed by Parel at 76.6 db. During the night, the area around New Passport Office, Worli, and Tadwadi in Mazagaon were the second noisiest at 70.7 db. In Maharashtra, Miraj Market in Sangli was the loudest at 89.5 db followed by Kothrud in Pune at 87.7 db during the day.
“Owing to the timely order by the Supreme Court and awareness campaigns run by MPCB, this Diwali was the quietest in five years. The use of firecrackers was half of what was witnessed in previous years due to active participation from citizens towards environment protection. We expect celebrations such as New Year will also be less noisy,” said VM Motghare, joint director, MPCB.
Anti-noise campaigners are sceptical about the findings. “The MPCB report does not give details of minimum or maxi- mum levels and does not identify the source of noise. It is unclear whether firecrackers increased background noise levels,” said Sumaira Abdulali, convener, Awaaz Foundation.
Borivli (East) near the station was the quietest on Diwali during the day at 61.5 db and Garodia
Dahisar
Trombay
Goregaon
Amar Mahal (Ghatkopar)
RESIDENTIAL AREA Nagar in Ghatkopar (East) was the quietest during the night at 53.4 db.
Motghare said average noise levels during the day were higher because of traffic and construction noise. “Ambient noise in major cities is above permissible limits but considering that there
Colaba
Versova
Mantralaya
Hiranandani Gardens (Powai)
SILENCE ZONE
PRAFUL GANGURDE/HT FILE PHOTO
was minimal use of firecrackers, there was only a marginal increase witnessed in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik. MPCB will carry out awareness drives in areas such as Sangli,” he said.
HT had reported last week that noise from firecrackers was reported well beyond the 10pm
deadline with complaints received as a late as 4am on Thursday.
“MPCB has released its report in accordance to the Supreme Court order in a predefined and pre-decided manner. The entire department works in an arbitrary manner without involving NGOS, students or independent scientists in their study and there is no transparency. The ground reality might be different,” said Asim Sarode, environment lawyer who has presented several petitions related to noise pollution at the Bombay high court and National Green Tribunal.