No let-up in noise levels during Ganesh Visarjan, average 101dB recorded at 8 am on Sunday

This is the 25th year of monitoring sound levels by a team of volunteer students led by Prof Mahesh Shindikar, Head, Department of Applied Sciences and Humanities, College of Engineering Pune Technological University.

The team of 25 volunteers from a NISARG (an environment club of COEP Tech) participated in the activity and were led by Mohit Kandalkar and Shreya Karande.

This year too the sound levels were measured at 10 prominent chowks along the procession route at Laxmi Road. Decibel readings were taken at four-hour intervals starting from 12 noon on procession day till Sunday morning.

“This exercise is undertaken as a scientific activity to record and monitor the temporal sound level variations throughout the event,” Dr Shindikar said.

The ten chowks include Belbaug chowk, Ganpati, Limbraj, Kunte, Umbryaa, Gokhale, Shedge, Holkar, Tilak and Khandoji chowk. The average sound level recorded was as high as 101 dB at 8 a.m on Sunday. As per the reading of decibel count taken at 8 am on Sunday, the loudest noise was at Kunte chowk at 111.8 dB.

According to Prof Shindikar, the overall average during the Visarjan has dropped down to 92.6 dB as compared to the last few years. Last year it was 94.8 dB. “This is the lowest reading in the post-Covid phase,” he said.

However the noise levels despite a few drop in decibels continue to flout permissible limits. Prof Shindikar observed that while the use of DJ systems was controlled during night time as per the guidelines, nevertheless the use of traditional instruments reveal similar sound levels.

As per an analysis by the CoEP team for the past 25 years the noise levels have consistently crossed permissible limits during Ganesh visarjan processions. It was only during the Covid-19 pandemic 2020-2021 that the average decibel count drastically came down to 59.8 dB. Otherwise the remaining years right from 2001 till date the average decibel count has remained between 90 -94 dB. Post Covid- in 2022 saw the highest average noise level of 105.2.

Experts maintained that despite frequently crossing the permissible levels of sound even in day to day activities, such social events expose our senses to considerably higher sound levels for a longer period of time.

“This has a severe impact on the physiological and psychological state of our body. It is more intense in the sensitive health conditions of blood pressure or diabetic patients. Children and senior citizens also find it difficult to withstand these situations,” Dr Shindikar observed.

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