Impact of Diwali Celebrations on Environmental Noise Pollution in India

Abstract

The paper describes the noise monitoring data acquired from the pilot project on the establishment of National Ambient Noise Monitoring Network across the seven major cities in India for continuous noise monitoring throughout the year. The annual average L day (06-22 hours) and L night (22-06 hours) values observed for the 70 locations in India under study are analyzed for the day of Diwali festival. The ambient noise levels are compared to the recommended ambient noise standards of India. The comparison of noise levels observed on the day of Diwali festival with respect to previous month average noise levels shows that 54 sites (77.1%) registered an increment in L day of 0-10 dB(A), while 47 sites (67.1%) registered an increment in L night of 0-10 dB(A). It is observed that 11 sites (15.7%) out of the 70 sites under consideration met the ambient noise standards. The work ascertains the noise scenario during the Diwali festival in India and can be thus helpful for devising suitable strategies for controlling noise pollution at the noisy sites in future.

GIS-based mapping and assessment of noise pollution in Safranbolu, Karabuk, Turkey

“…Development of the transportation network, proliferation of motor vehicles, widespread mechanization and failures in protecting densely populated residential areas from noise due to unplanned rapid urbanization cause many problems in terms of public health. Noise pollution has been reported to be a major problem especially for those living in big cities (Bermúdez et al 2019 ; Garg et al 2017 ; Kalawapudi et al 2020 ; Vladimir and Madalina 2019 ). Traffic, industry, construction, etc., in cities are the main source of noise pollution (Cueto et al 2017 ; Kephalopoulos et al 2014 ; Khodaei et al 2009 ; Morel 2016 ; Morley et al 2015 ; Yilmaz and Ozer 2005 ).…”

“…The discomforts of the noise on humans are generally examined in four main groups: physical effects (ear problems, acoustic trauma); physiologically (blood pressure, circulatory, sleep disorder, respiration, acceleration, etc. ); psychological effects (behavioral disorders, outburst of anger); and performance effects (inefficiency, concentration disturbance) (Garg et al 2017;Singh et al 2018;Farooqi 2017). Different kinds of problems that are caused by noise levels on humans are shown in Table 1.…”

Evaluation and Analysis of Long-term Environmental Noise Levels in 7 Major Cities of India

“…The 70 locations cover 25 commercial sites, 16 residential sites, 17 sites in silence zones, and 12 sites in industrial zones. The Noise Monitoring Terminals (NMTs) manufactured and installed by Geónica Earth Sciences, Spain, have been discussed in detail earlier 2017b;2017c;2017d). In addition, a website application (CPCB, n.d.) has been developed to disseminate the data in real time to the public to generate awareness.…”