This story is from September 22, 2016

Old city areas noisiest, but trend is towards quieter Ganesh fest

Gandhi Putala has replaced Cotton Market as the noisiest area of the city during the festive times of Ganesh Chaturthi. Last year, Gandhi Putala was the second noisiest area. Interestingly, Reshimbagh, where noise pollution has been rising steadily since last five years, recorded the lowest decibels this year.
Old city areas noisiest, but trend is towards quieter Ganesh fest
Gandhi Putala has replaced Cotton Market as the noisiest area of the city during the festive times of Ganesh Chaturthi. Last year, Gandhi Putala was the second noisiest area. Interestingly, Reshimbagh, where noise pollution has been rising steadily since last five years, recorded the lowest decibels this year.

NAGPUR: Gandhi Putala has replaced Cotton Market as the noisiest area of the city during the festive times of Ganesh Chaturthi. Last year, Gandhi Putala was the second noisiest area. Interestingly, Reshimbagh, where noise pollution has been rising steadily since last five years, recorded the lowest decibels this year.
Not surprisingly, September 15, the last day of Ganesh immersions, was the noisiest day in Nagpur in areas monitored by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) over the ten festive days.

Over the first four days of monitoring, the decibel levels in all five areas were not so high. It is likely that the average rose sharply since the board also monitored immersion sites at Sonegaon, Gandhisagar, Futala, Sakkardara and Naik Talao on the last day. For instance, in Ramdaspeth, maximum noise levels in the first four days ranged from 68 to 73.8 decibels but soared to 83.7 decibels on the last day, when Sonegaon lake was also monitored. Ramdaspeth has been the only monitoring location to see positive change, with noise levels coming down significantly from 2013. Last year, the highest decibel level there was 77.9.
With noise levels reaching 86.6 dB, Gandhi Putala witnessed maximum noise pollution. However, in some good news, this is still lower than last year’s high, which was recorded at 97.5 dB at Cotton Market, where the highest level this year was 78.6.
When compared to last year, when the highest noise levels recorded at Gandhi Putala were 86.1, there has only been a slight increase. Residents said that the reason behind high decibels is the area’s central location. “Every year, processions of all the big idols from Wardhaman Nagar, Itwari, Maskasath, Lalganj and other areas pass through Gandhi Putala while going for immersions at Futala or Gandhisagar lake. Thus, the rush is more here than at other places,” said resident
Amar Nagpal. MPCB officials also confirmed that highest recordings are observed near street processions.
Though Ramdaspeth heard the lowest decibels last year, this time it was Reshimbagh with 54.8 dB. The area, which houses one of the city’s biggest Ganpati idols ‘Nagpur Ka Raja’, recorded the highest noise levels in 2011 at 88.9 decibels, which have since gone down over the years.
Residents, however, did not feel much difference this year, owing to an exhibition at Reshimbagh ground. “Earlier, the exhibition would be held at Tulsibagh and we would not get much affected. This year proved to be the noisiest for us,” said advocate Manoj Sable. However, barring the exhibition, there has been a decline in use of loudspeakers and DJs, said resident Shivkumar Meher. “Everybody suffers from health problems due to constant noise for 10 days. May be, this is the reason people are realizing that festivals can also be celebrated without din,” he added.
Interestingly, the lowest decibel levels in all five areas were recorded on September 6, the first day of immersion, and September 9, fifth day of the festival. Ramdaspeth, Cotton Market and Golibar Chowk witnessed minimum noise pollution on September 9 while Reshimbagh and Gandhi Putala on September 6.
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