Alert cops ensure less noisy Ganesh fest …………Mansi Choksi I TNN
Mumbai: Noise levels in silence zones on the fifth day of the Ganesh festival had environmentalists heaving a sigh a relief as they were below permissible decibel limits near major hospitals in the city.
After Sumaira Abdulali of Awaaz wrote to top cop Hassan Gaffoor last week, it looks like things are slowly falling into place. For the first time, police were posted in these zones to prevent revellers from using noisy instruments, bursting crackers during processions or halting in the vicinity of hospitals. Procession routes also appeared to have been diverted away from major hospitals like Jaslok, KEM and Tata Hospital.
Abdulali, who carried out the noise-mapping, said, “The police had been instructed to ensure that silence zones remain noise-free. This was apparent near major hospitals but at smaller hospitals and educational institutions, the situation was not the same. Nevertheless, a major reduction in overall noise levels was clearly visible,’’ said Abdulali. These noise levels represent a pleasant change even from the first day of Ganpati. “They were bursting crackers near Jaslok Hospital,’’ she said.
Zarana Shah, who lives in a silence zone near Harkisondas Hospital agrees, “Every year during Ganesh Chaturthi, we have to shut our doors and windows because of the noise. But this year, the situation has drastically improved.’’
But in silence zones near smaller hospitals, the situation has not improved much. For example, while there was no noise from processions outside Harikisondas around 8 pm on Monday, the silence zone near People’s Mobile Hospital was noisy.