This Ganeshotsav, Go Traditional To Reduce Noise Pollution
· Free Press Journal
No one has to dig deep to know when a religious-cultural celebration becomes noise pollution; it has been well documented and judicially affirmed since the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules were brought into effect in the year 2000. It does not need a fresh debate every year in the run-up to and during the ten-day Ganeshotsav in major cities of Maharashtra, and, likewise, for other festivals celebrated at scale in other cities. Punekars marched to pressurise the local administration and urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to regulate the eardrum-splitting noise generated by loudspeaker-DJ sets and Dolby sound systems during the Ganeshotsav starting from September 14, a demand initially voiced with vociferous indignation by Vidyanand Bapat.
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Fadnavis Must Apply Noise Rules
Fadnavis has spoken the right words—the noise generated by DJ systems is “like an earthquake”—for which he might have risked the wrath of some colleagues and the DJ-Dolby industry, but the true test is his decision. Government agencies, he stated, would build a consensus on restricting the use of high-decibel sound systems during festivals in Pune. On what exactly is a consensus needed to be built when the Noise Rules are clear and the implementing authority, the local police, reports to him? Seeking to build a consensus among violators, who believe celebrating the Ganeshotsav in high decibels is their birthright, is like a law enforcer conferencing with thieves to bring down theft.
Fadnavis is well advised to apply the Noise Rules and reiterate the boundary for one and all. In fact, his government has shown the will to do this. In Mumbai and Nagpur, his home city, a ban was issued by the local police under Section 163 of the BNSS on high-decibel sound systems, laser lights, and modified vehicles used as chariots from September 3 through to November 1, covering the festivals of Dahi Handi, Ganeshotsav, Navratri, and Diwali—without building a consensus. What changed in Pune? If political considerations are winning over the rational application of well-tested noise rules, it would be condemnable, indeed.
Noise Levels Raise Health Concerns
That citizen Bapat was attacked for speaking up, and the Pune Police forbade him from participating in the march due to a threat to his life, speaks volumes about the breakdown of law and order in Maharashtra’s cultural capital. All that Bapat and others demanded was that Noise Rules be applied, which permit standard sound levels in residential zones up to 55 decibels during the day and 45 decibels at night, while the silence zones (hospitals and schools) have lower limits. The DJ-Dolby systems emit between 90 and 127 decibels continuously for hours, causing distress, even medical emergencies, for people. Recent studies recorded a peak of 109-111 decibels during Pune’s Ganpati immersion processions. Surely, Pune can follow the rules and celebrate with the traditional dhol-tasha?