Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) data revealed that the city not only witnessed an increase in the noise levels this Diwali compared to last year, the indexes were almost near to or even higher than some locations during the 2019 festival. The air quality dropped from the “moderate” to “poor” category a day after this year’s Laxmi Puja on Monday.
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The MPCB would again monitor the noise levels on October 26, the last day of Diwali, while Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM)-SAFAR provided real-time updates on the air quality in various locations in the city.
As per the data from MPCB, four locations in the city recorded the highest noise levels while SAFAR recorded that the ‘satisfactory’ air quality index recorded on Monday night dropped to ‘poor’ on Tuesday night.
Pratap Jagtapsub-regional officer at MPCB-Pune, said, “We have been monitoring the noise levels in 14 locations – 11 in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) areas and three localities under the Pimpri Chinchwad civic body. We monitored the noise levels on October 18 and October 24 and will again check it on October 26, the day of Diwali Padwa.”
He said, “We monitored the noise levels on an hourly basis in two shifts – 6am-10 pm and 10pm- 6am. We observed that the noise level rose by about 10% this year compared to last year’s Diwali. The least noise levels were recorded in Shivajinagar at around 83.3 decibel (dB). The noisiest levels were recorded in Swargate, Laxmi Road, SarasbaugSatara Road and Aundh Gaon at about 87.7 dB.”
Campaigns for a quieter Diwali had fallen on deaf ears in 2019 too as the daytime noise levels increased in seven of the 15 monitored busy locations in the city on Laxmi Puja day (October 27). Karve Road was then the noisiest of the 15 locations, closely followed by Swargate. MPCB data had revealed that the average noise level at Karve Road was 87.6 leq db (A).
Swargate was a close second on the noise meter with an average 85.3 leq db (A) in 2019. Six other locations – Satara Road, Swargate, Khadki, Shaniwarwada, Laxmi Road and Sarasbaug – had then recorded high noise levels.
SAFAR readings revealed that the city’s air quality was “satisfactory” on Monday night, but it dropped to “moderate” on Tuesday morning and finally to “poor” on Tuesday night. Weather officials, however, forecast that the air quality was likely to be back to the “moderate” category on Wednesday.
