Assessment of noise level in Burdwan town, West Bengal.

ABSTRACT

Cities and towns of the world are now facing enormous rise of noise pollution problem due to very high population rise, transport congestion and associated commercial and industrial activities. Burdwan, a district headquarter (100 km away from Kolkata) is one such town where noise pollution is very frequent. In order to assess noise level, noise data were collected from various places of the town by sound level meter with a duration of 30 minutes/location during specified time like 6.00 am, 10.00 am, 1.00 pm, 4.00 pm and 6.00 pm. Most of the monitoring places either belongs to silence category or commercial category areas. From the tabulated data, it was found that sound level lies within the range of 64-85 dB or above in different time at different places. The locations that belong to the silence zone have the noise level up to 90 dB. Statistically noise level in all these zones differ significantly at their peak hours. Noise pollution adversely affects our environment as well as human beings. Sound causes both pathological and psychological disorders in human beings. Implementation of rules and regulations under section 20, 21J, 41, 68(I), 70, 90, 111A of Environment Protection Act, 1986 and of course various technological methods and public awareness are very essential to check noise pollution in Burdwan town.