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A.Pheno-Menon

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                        NOISE LEGISLATION: A GLOBAL VS NATIONAL OUTLOOK

                                                

Noise pollution as a national health and environmental hazard has been long overlooked in places like India. Although Noise Pollution is a part of the Environmental Act, and there is a growing awareness of this topic, there is still an ignorance and overall apathy towards creating a sonically pleasing environment. As India battles through a very slow, unreliable law dispensation and implementation methods, bureaucracy and corruption often rear their ugly heads. Besides in India, a ritualistic aspect of the culture and how that can intervene and cause destructive activities for the rest of the society is very much evident in varying degrees. Big festivals along with wedding and political rallies all play a role in this unreasonable and insensitive propagation of sound. 

 

Although air and water pollution are the visible forms of pollution, noise is just as lethal. However, noise is subjective and there are various parameters by which noise should be studied to arrive at a well-informed, fact based result which can then become a part of the noise legislation that helps to update the existing noise laws. 

 

What is Noise?

Noise is an unwanted sound in simple terms. Noise legislation can be both based on qualitative- a public opinion and quantitative- setting of decibels to specified undesirable sounds. 

 

Noise Hazards: A prolonged exposure to sound can cause a condition known as TTS (Temporary Threshold Shift). It is the elevation of the threshold of hearing after being subject to very loud and continuous sound. All sounds heard after such an experience seem fainter. Normal hearing returns after only a few hours or even days of rest. This is a serious concern which if exposed regularly could lead to permanent cochlear damage, resulting in permanent threshold shift (FTS). (Schafer, 1994)

 

It can not only cause health issues in terms of hearing, but has other health effects too such as high blood pleasure, sleep disturbance, headaches, nausea, sexual impotence, defective cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and respiratory functions. (Schafer, 1994)

 

Permissible Noise Exposure as Established by the Walsh-Healey Act 1969:

 

            

Duration Per Day (Hours)

Sound Level (dBA)

8

90

6

92

4

95

3

97

2

100

1 ½

 

102

1

105

½

110

¼ or less

115

 

(Schafer, 1994)

 

The Rapid Rise in Ambient Noise Level

 

Due to rapid urbanisation of several cities around the world, particularly developing countries such as India, the ambient noise level is rising. However, how much of it is rising is difficult to estimate. Decibels, the unit of sound, is usually mentioned to convey the sound levels. Figures of the decibel level in cities rising by a decibel might not seem a lot on the surface but if we delve a little further, it is a significant rise in terms of volume as decibel is fundamentally a logarithmic unit. 

 

Murray Schafer in his book ‘Our Sonic Environment and The Soundscape: the Tuning of the World’ suggests that a more plausible would be if we were to calculate the ambient noise in proportion to social signals. By adopting such methods, we can arrive at a more practical and simpler way of calculating ambient noise. (Schafer, 1994)

 

Public Reaction to Ambient Noise Levels

 

The table, below, is based on the list of noises receiving the most complaints from the public municipal officials around the world:

 

 

Type of Noise

Number of Times Mentioned

Traffic

115

Construction 

61

Industry

40

Radios/Amplified Music

29

Aircraft

28

Motorbikes, 

23

Trucks

21

Animals

20

Bands/Discotheques

12

Parties

9

Power lawnmowers

7

 

(Schafer, 1994)

 

Civic Noise Abatement Legislation 

 

Quantitative legislation is the commonly agreed degree of those sounds which causes unwanted interruptions. However, due to the subjective nature of what constitutes a disturbing sound, qualitative legislation is challenging to implement in a case against noise in the courts of law. Quantitative legislation parameter gives the noise a certain threshold parameter, which is a cut-off point beyond should the sounds levels cross, then it can be considered as “loud” and “disturbing to the public.” Quantitative legislation is a more convenient way of legislating noise as investigation and proof which the civic administration can use to control and govern by a society. However, quantitative legislation is an expensive affair as high quality technical gear will need to be invested to measure the same.

 

Two effective methods to quantification of sound measurement that are employed in places like Scandinavia, Canada, and Japan are creating dedicated acoustic spaces and to set limits for particularly offensive noises and to focus on keeping them under control. In India, Anirudh Kumar vs Municipal Corporation of Delhi (2015), the residents succeeded in winning a case involving construction noise in their locality but the overall case took a year to come to a favourable conclusion. (Schafer, 1994)

 

The challenge here and the one area that gets overlooked though in the midst of controlling physically destructive sounds is that of psychologically distressing sounds. It seems a herculean battle to even legislate such aspects of sounds that deal with more of aesthetics and sound quality which varies from country to country and from community to community.

 

 

Study of Noise Legislation Reveals Cultural Differences

 

Unlike other laws based on tangible and visible items like air, water, etc, laws on noise was forced into existence by various societies. Noise phobias in one region of the world may sound absurd to those from another region. For instance in the city of Geneo in Italy in its regulatory body, as per Article 65 states that from 9 pm to 7 pm, shutters must be opened and closed as quietly as possible. Article 67 of Genoese regulation, places restrictions on the noise moving between 11 pm and 7 am. Article 70 talks about regulating street music. In Germanic countries, there is a law against beating of carpets and mattresses during a particular time of the day and week. (Schafer, 1994)

 

In places like India, on the contrary, noise legislation is present but it can be argued that just like most of all the law dispensation methods, it is hardly enforced effectively and reasonably. Loud noises and high threshold music performance in the name of various religious festivities, functions and processions are rampant throughout India in varying degrees. The neighbourhoods, people who have health issues, school going students are held captive by the sheer volume of these sounds often blasted through big Public Address systems. When noisy rituals, lack of respect for law and order are at display on every occasion, the cases where the law has dispensed justice is so far and few. (Sharma & Kashyap, 2025)

 

Some notable exceptions though include the Om Birangana Religious Society vs The State and Ors. on 1st April, 1996. The petitioner from the religious society prayed for a writ to accord necessary permission in the favour of the said society in terms of section 34A of the Police Act, 1963, West Bengal Amendment to enable them to use microphones, loudspeakers or any other apparatus for raising the human voice. Freedom of speech and the freedom to propagate religion according to article 25 of the Constitution were used as the foundation for the organisation’s argument. The court eventually denounced their petition by using Article 19 (1) (a) and Article19 (2) of the Constitution state that a citizen should not be coerced to hear anything which he does not like or require. Microphones and loudspeakers in the name of freedom of speech to propagate and create unreasonably amplified sounds can lead to a noise hazard which in turn paves the way for taking away the rights of others who are entitled to basic human comforts and instead made captive listeners as a result of insensitive use of sound.The court also cited noise hazards and the impact it could have on society besides taking away the rights of a citizen to enjoy their lives, to have leisure, right to sleep, read and speak to others. Microphones in the name of freedom of speech can take away the rights of others who are entitled to basic human comforts. Besides, no religion advocates the use of microphones and loudspeakers to propagate their messages. (Indian Kanoon, 2005)

 

As seen in the aforementioned example, balancing religious, cultural and social practices with noise control is proving to be not only a challenge but also an area where lack of sonic awareness reigns supreme in countries like India. It is paramount that awareness programmes for acoustics, noise, the need to protect from hazardous noise and implementation of acoustically designed spaces are put into practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference List

  1. Schafer R. M. (1994), Second Edition, ‘The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World’, Alfred Knopf Inc. 
  2. Indian Kanoon (2005). Available on: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1709298/
  3. Sharma & Kashyap (2025), Noise Poluution: An Analysis of Judicial Approach, IJRDO- Journal of Law and Cyber Crime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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