Bengaluru: Despite spending Rs 1 crore on awareness campaigns on a cracker-free Deepavali, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) could not stop citizens from bursting crackers this year. The air and noise quality monitored from October 17 to October 20 reveals that the PM10 level increased by 1.6% and the noise level witnessed a rise of 5.3% during nights as compared to the Deepavali last year.
KSPCB said that the average concentration of PM10 on a normal day (October 17) was 83.4µg/M3, while on the festival day it went up to 122.4µg/M3, showing an increase of 48.8%. The Central Pollution Control Board too observed that the Air Quality Index (AQI) on October 18 and October 19, the days when more crackers were burst, had declined by 23% to 68%.
But city-based environmentalists believe that though the pollution level has gone up, it is not drastic. “As far as crackers are concerned, the sale definitely went down this year. The KSPCB did a good job in spreading awareness. But still a lot needs to be done,” said Mr Mahesh Kashyap, consultant with the Centre for Sustainable Development.
He said that as the weather was humid and wind was slow on festival days, the city witnessed higher levels of pollutants. The noise monitoring data revealed that there was an increase in noise level by 0.8% from 2016 to 2017. Peenya Industrial Estate (68.5 dB), Whitefield Industrial Area (70.2 dB) and Marathahalli (58.1 dB) were on top of the list during Deepavali, and the noise level increased by 7.4% when compared to last year.
State of affairs
- Central Silk Board and Whitefield Industrial Area exceeded the national limit of the PM10 level (100µg/M3) by 59% and 48%, respectively
- The noise level during day on a normal day (October 17) was 64.7% and in the night it was 60.1%. However, on festive days, though the noise level during the daytime decreased by 0.6% it went up during the night by 5.3%
- In the recent survey conducted by the national ambient noise monitoring network, it was found that the noise levels at Yeshwantpur, RVCE and NIMHANS are higher than normal. The results revealed that there has been a considerable increment in the noise levels since
- RVCE and NIMHANS which fall under silent zones recorded increased noise levels on festival days
- RVCE- 56.5 db (night time)
- NIMHANS-65.4 db (night time)
- Permissible level- 55 db
