Noise Pollution in the City

Noise pollution in Guwahati has increased by leaps and bounds. City buses with wind horns are very common these days, and police vehicles with high-pitched horns have been hooting around for quite a few months now. It is not as though the police are uware of a law that exists against noise pollution. But the custodians of the law have turned out to be the greatest violators of it. In fact, one is beginning to wonder whether the police understand clearly what noise pollution is and the kind of harm that it does to people. Noise pollution can result from occasiol spurts of very high levels of noise or from noise of a lower level sustained for long periods or from a combition of both. The noise level of a large jet plane landing is around 120 decibels (dB). It is very loud noise likely to affect the hearing of people exposed to such noises for a long time. The noise level of certain wind horns used in city buses and the unbearable cacophonous racket produced by some police vehicles is around 140 dB. Such horns and sirens steadily destroy the hearing ability of people. This is the level of sound that causes noise pollution that steadily destroys the hearing of people. It is the level of noise that affects children most of all, almost always leading to some level of hearing loss and thus making them unsuitable for several professions and vocations when they grow up. Legislation to ban noise pollution was passed by the Assam Assembly several years ago. This is something the police cannot pretend to be ignorant of. The duty of the police is to prevent the use of wind horns by buses and trucks with an iron hand and to stop polluting the city with the horrible noise some police vehicles make.