Hyderabad: Light pollution is silent menace

Hyderabad: Light pollution is found in the city in different forms from the new flashy LED headlight on a vehicle to floodlights put up for promotional events at commercial complexes.

Mr Vijay Gopal of the Forum Against Corruption group, was forced to shoot a letter to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s enforcement wing, elucidating the dangers these lights and flashy signboards pose for motorists.

“It is very easy for anyone to be blinded or distracted by the lights on these LED boards. The GHMC must take action against them immediately,” he said.

As per the rules of the GHMC Act — 420 and 421 (1) — no person is allowed to erect a sky-high sign or place an advertisement without getting permission from the civic authorities.

Research has found that artificial light pollution threatens the life cycles of 60 per cent of nocturnal animals and birds as it obstructs their mechanisms of sight and sense.

In humans, LED lights are found to affect the sleep cycles of those who have the glare of street lights and hoarding lights entering their rooms.

Dr Srinivas Kishore, senior sleep specialist, explains, “The light affe-cts the deep sleep cycle and that is disturbed due to the glare. The brain gets the signal that it is not night and this leads to changes in the perception by the human body. The cycle of sleep is disturbed and also reduced which then leads to the advent of diseases.”

Natural darkness requi-red for proper sleep is slo-wly eroding as artificial lighting in cities, towns and villages, too bright, is leading to high levels of illumination, which are not required.

“There was a time in the nineties, when people could look up at the sky and watch the stars, which number in lakhs. Now due to artificial lights and pollution, it is difficult to spot even ten stars,” Mr Raghunandan Kumar, founder secretary of the Planetary Society of India, said.