Tourists resent high decibel festivities

Alappuzha: Noise pollution in Alappuzha is causing sleepless nights to the local residents as well as tourists and driving them mad.

This is in addition to the attack of mosquitoes that they endure.  

A group of German tourists who stayed here on the Christmas day had a harrowing time due to the high decibel loudspeakers used in the area throughout the night.

They had come as guests of Sylvie Bantle, a German writer settled here,  who is a campaigner against  noise pollution.

Bantle said that on  Christmas night, fireworks  that continued till early morning  devastated her  German guests.  They could not sleep even with ear plugs. “They will never again come here,”  she says.

The programme in  the chapel near her house  began  at  10 p.m. with loudspeakers creating noise of over 80 decibel level. 

“One man here who recently protested against the noise from religious places, clubs  and  private parties had to run for his life and take shelter in the church, because a section of people wanted to kill him.  There are many similar cases here,”  she says.   

She plans to  leave the state because there is no hope. “Though the court has banned speaker horns, they are being used frequently. 

Many people tell us they are disturbed by  noise pollution, but they don’t dare to protest. I have documented the noise pollution since last June. It shows that the law is being ignored with impunity,”  she adds. 

The State Pollution Control Board has restricted noise pollution in industrial areas to 75 decibel, commercial area 65, residential area 55 and silence zone 50.

A division bench of the Kerala High Court comprising J. B. Koshy and Justice V. Giri had directed the government in 2009 to implement section 3 of the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules and section 359 of the Kerala Motor Vehicles Rules to reduce  noise pollution caused by motor vehicles.

In 1993, Justice P. K. Shamsudheen of the Kerala High Court had banned the use of public address system and loudspeakers except for prayers in mosques, which lasts just a minute or so. But these orders have made little impact.