Festival of lights, a quiet affair

HYDERABAD: Deepavali this time has been rather quiet. The noise pollution has gone down considerably from 85.8 dB in 2010 to 79 dB this year in residential areas in the city. The AP Pollution Control Board laboratory, which monitors pollution every Deepavali, recorded lower levels of pollution.Lab officials said one of the reasons for this could be the rain on the day of Deepavali.Social scientist Prasanna Kumar attributes it to higher awareness among youngsters about pollution. The noise levels in commercial, industrial and silence zones in the city have also come down. While the noise level was 82.9 dB in commercial zone, 80.6 dB in industrial and 78.6 dB in silence zones on the day of Deepavali last year, it is 82.6 db, 77.2 and 52.59 dB respectively this year.Also, the noise levels saw only a marginal increase on Deepavali compared to the previous day. On the eve of Deepavali the noise level was 78.8 dB in residential areas, while on the day of the festival, it went up to 79.3 dB.The pollution control board laboratory officials also stated that the decrease in air pollution was quite noticeable when they recorded the level of pollution on the eve of Deepavali. In residential and commercial areas, the amount of respirable particulate matter in air was 131 micro grams per cubic metre of air, much lower than 180 micro grams in the previous year.