Introduction:

The use of loudspeakers is regulated in terms of the Rules under the Environment Protection Act (1986) as well as the orders of the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court. The Police is empowered to enforce these rules and the orders. While the legal restrictions are observed by and large, special vigilance becomes necessary during festivals such as the Durga Puja, Kali Puja/Diwali. In addition, the bursting of crackers is a major nuisance during Kali puja/Diwali. To have a clear idea about the increase of ambient noise level in residential areas in the city of Calcutta and other district town during festival, the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) undertook a noise monitoring survey during those days in the year 2003 as in previous years.

Measurement procedure:

Fire crackers generate instantaneous impulsive noise, which when measured in free field condition in impulsive mode, gives peak sound pressure level. It is quite obvious that a number of crackers when bursting serially can easily form a band of continuous noise in the presence of reflecting surfaces. The reverberation of sound wave due to repeated reflection in the surfaces prolongs the time interval of prevailing sound intensity. The continuous band of noise, thus formed, definitely affects the ambient level in close proximity.

The monitoring was conducted at the select locations on a normal working day, between 6.00 p.m. and 10.00 p.m. The microphone of the Sound Level Meter fitted with wind screen was placed 1.5m above the ground, and at least 1m from the fa�de of the building at each location. Data recorded at each location were used to compute the one hour equivalent continuous noise level L_eq. On the same locations, the above procedure was repeated on the Kali puja day (25.10.03).

Results:

The noise survey results in 2003 (Table-I) reveal a slight increase of ambient noise level in various residential areas in the city of Calcutta and Howrah on Kali puja and Deepavali day in comparison to any normal day. The main cause of increase in ambient noise level on festival days is bursting of crackers, whereas in normal days, the main contributions to the ambient noise level of any residential area are from trade activities, the transport system and various domestic activities.

The main observations are summarised:

1. The increase of noise level at select locations on the Kali puja day compared to a normal day in 2003 varies from 1% to 7%.This is much lower compared to the figure during 2001 and 2002 (Table-I).
2. Compared to last year (2002), there is a reduction in the noise level at the selected locations, varying from 1% to 6% (Table-II).
3. The reduction of noise level at the selected locations in 2003 varies from (-)3 to +23%, compared to the 2001 data (Table-III).

Analysis of Complaints :

A central Control Room was set up at Paribesh Bhawan in both the days from evening to the late night to receive the complaints. Besides control rooms were set up in the Regional Offices of the Board at Haldia, Hooghly, Barrackpore, Durgapur, Asansol and Siliguri.

The details of complaints received in the years 2002 and 2003 in the WBPCB Control Room at Paribesh Bhawan are furnished below:

The nature of complaints received in 2003 are detailed below:

* Figure in the bracket for the year 2002

Awareness campaign and specific measures:

The WBPCB has given a wide publicity to the Supreme Court’s direction on the use of fireworks only between 6.00 a.m. and 10.00 p.m. through Electronic and Print Media. In addition, at the request by the WBPCB, Cellular operators namely Bharati Cellular and Reliance Next Link sent awareness message ‘Say NO to CRACKERS. Celebrate Deepavali with lamps, candles and fireworks.’ to their customers. Hutchison Telecom, however, declined to do so.

The violators of noise pollution norms are called for a hearing at Paribesh Bhawan, Salt Lake and necessary action will be taken after the hearing.

The information received from the police departments showed that 254 arrests were made in districts, and 106 in Kolkata Police areas in the Kali Puja day i.e. on 24.10.03 (TableIV).

Table- I

Comparison of Noise Level in a normal day with Kalipuja Day

Table- II

Comparison of Noise Level in Kalipuja Day

Table- III

Comparison of Noise Level in Kalipuja Day

Table-IV

District wise information of seizure and arrest against the use, sale and storage of banned crackers received from West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police authorities on 24.10.2003

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