City noise pollution alarming, says student project

Gottigere school report selected for National Childrens Science Congress

For, a unique project on noise pollution in Bangalore undertaken by students of a school in Gottigere has been selected for the National Children’s Science Congress 2009, slated to be held in Ahmedabad next month.

The project by students of Vidyanjali Primary and High School was the only one out of 320 presentations made during the 17th All Karnataka Children’s Science Congress at Raichur that dealt with the topic of noise pollution. Pavithra (Class VII), Ramya S (Class IX), Brijesh (Class VIII), Prithviraj (Class VIII) and Pavan (Class X) were involved in the project.

A total of 30 projects from State, including the one on noise pollution, have been selected for presentation at the national level.  Uma Shankar, school administrator who guided the team in the project, said that the students selected areas which fell under the four classifications, Residential, Industrial, Commercial and Silent Zone. “They divided themselves into batches and worked round-the-clock for 48 hours in each area to record the decibel levels,” he said. 

Technical assistance
Sophisticated instruments to record the decibel levels and technical assistance were provided by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. The noise levels in every area was way ahead of the permissible level, the study revealed.  
An additional residential area was considered so that it could serve as a model area. Shanboganahalli, four kms from Bannerghatta Road, a rural area with 500 houses has been identified as an ideal location to escape from noise, states school headmistress Hemalatha. The average noise level here was just 43.2 decibels, which is even lesser than the permissible minimum noise level of 45 db for residential areas. “Absence of commercial establishments and fewer numbers owning vehicles are the reasons,” she said.

What is quite thought provoking are the conclusions drawn for the enhanced decibel level at KSRTC bus depot.  Making an urgent plea to introduce electronic boards on the lines of the City railway station here, the study says that at any given time forty buses were stationed at the depot. “The constant whistling by the conductors when the buses take a reverse turn and their loud announcements of various destinations take the noise levels sky high here,” is one such conclusion.

Again, there are 23 advertisement boards at this spot.  “The smooth surface of the boards are noise reflectors and this enhances the noise levels,” it adds. Boards with rough surfaces ought to replace them, the study suggests.