Twelve years ago, a 78-year-old Greek was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a neighbour who insisted on playing loud music when he wanted to hear the news.
This is the first of a three-part series on History of noise law
When Dr YT Oke, one of Mumbai’s pioneering campaigners against noise pollution, speaks at anti-noise pollution forums he relates a tragic story to drive home the devastating effects of loud noise: 12 years ago, a 78-year-old Greek was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a neighbour who insisted on playing loud music when he wanted to hear the news.
Though the Greek incident is an extreme example, it shows that prolonged exposure to excessive noise can be mentally disturbing and can drive people to murderous insanity.
Oke says that when he was a school student in the 1940s, the trundling electric trams and the sirens from factories were the main source of noise. This changed in the mid-1950s when loudspeakers became popular during Satyanarayan pujas and other religious and social functions in the city’s mill areas. “This became a trend and families would even borrow money to hire loudspeakers,” said Oke.
When he returned to India in 1966, Oke remembers that he had grown more sensitive to noise. “The concept of noise pollution and that excessive noise could damage the body physically and mentally was not understood.”
In 1979, in a seminar on ‘Noise Pollution’ in Mumbai, Dr PP Karnik, ENT professor at KEM Hospital, spoke about deafness caused by noise. The same year, in one of the first court cases involving noise pollution, residents of Jayvijay building in Vile Parle, including Oke, filed a suit against an industrial shed that was being built in the neighbourhood. Oke argued that noise pollution from the shed would cause high blood pressure and affect the functioning of the vital organs of the body, including the heart and brain. The shed was demolished in 1986 because no new factory could come up in a residential zone.
The state government had permitted the use of loudspeakers atop religious places. In the 1980s, Navaratri became noisy as ‘Disco Dandiyas’ became a trend.
In 1985, Oke along with the Association of Medical Consultants filed a petition in the High Court. The group produced before the court a report by an NGO SOCLEEN (Society for Clean Environment), which had studied noise levels during festivals. The study said that there was an increase in decibel levels in residential areas during festivals from 50-60 db to 90-100db and due to crackers in Diwali up to 115-120db.
The HC appointed an 8-member committee to study noise pollution in Mumbai and suggest remedial measures.
Tomorrow: Desai Committee Report
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