Noise-high Capital looks for ways to tame decibel demons

BLARING ITO noisiest spot, comparisons of yearly averages show that noise level has exceeded prescribed standards

NEW DELHI: From honking cars to music from the neighbourhood weddings, the decibel demons have pushed the noise levels in the Capital to an uncomfortable high, data says.

Source: National Ambient Noise Monitoring Network of the Central Pollution Control Board

The National Green Tribunal had recently rapped the Delhi govt over delay in devising a strategy to counter noise pollution. Dilshad Garden East Arjun Nagar Rohini ITO Dwarka

ITO is the noisiest spot in Delhi, the National Ambient Noise Monitoring Network of the Central Pollution Control Board recently revealed.

Comparisons of yearly averages across five spots in the city from 2011 to 2014 show that the noise level at Delhi has exceeded prescribed standards at most stations almost always.

The spots which were monitored by National Ambient Noise Monitoring Network for four years are Dilshad Garden, Delhi College of Engineering in Rohini, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology in Dwarka, ITO and Central Pollution Control Board headquarters in East Arjun Nagar.

Among these, East Arjun Nagar and Dilshad Garden recorded a massive boom in noise pollution levels in the past few years.

BS Vohra, president of East Delhi RWAs Joint Front (Federation), told Hindustan Times that East Arjun Nagar and Dilshad Garden were arguably the noisiest residential areas of the Capital.

“Dilshad Garden is next to the Uttar Pradesh border and has to bear the heavy load of trucks coming in and going out. East Arjun Nagar, on the other hand, is in close proximity to the Anand Vihar interstate bus terminus, Anand Vihar railway station as well as the Uttar Pradesh border. The Jhilmil industrial area, which is in between the Dilshad Garden, East Arjun Nagar and Anand Vihar adds to the noise pollution here,” Vohra said.

Another clogged corner of the city, Dwarka, too, has emerged as a hotspot for noise pollution. Environmental activist and Noise level in the city is uncomfortably high, data says Figures in decibels (db) 52 60 51 72 55 Dwarka resident Diwan Singh said that this west Delhi locality was ‘extremely noisy’.

“Heavy transit traffic from Gurgaon to west Delhi and a large number of construction activities along with insufficient green buffer zones add to the noise pollution. We need to increase the number of green areas and regulate traffic and construction activities so that the decibel demons can be tamed,” he said.

The National Green Tribunal had recently rapped the Delhi govDIWAN SINGH, Dwarka resident National Safety mark: 55 db 51 59 50 71 55 50 60 51 73 55 51 62 51 74 55 ernment over delay in devising a strategy for better implementation of pollution control laws, especially those regarding noise pollution. The green court had in the last week of March directed the government to convene a meeting in this regard within two weeks. The Delhi government is also set to revise the noise cap for firecrackers. The current sound limit for each firecracker is 125 decibels, while sound levels of up to 70 decibels is considered safe for humans.

with thanks : Hindustan Times, Dated 18.4.2016

Courage under fire forged a hero !

Candle march at Gandhi nagar in the memory of Sh Rajesh Kumar Goel who expired in a cyllinder blast while Saving others. In the National Capital, at LNJP hospital he was not treated at all, for almost two hours. RIP.

Odd Even Dobara : Not that Even so far !

Please go through today's pollution status of Delhi, as below. One thing seems very much clear that we require to do much more than #ODDEVEN or #ODDEVENDOBARA. Truly, Odd Even alone won't serve the purpose. We must take certain more, more stringent measures to combat pollution in Delhi.

At Anand Vihar, Benzene at 10 pm last night was at 46.20, at 7 am today was at 37.70 and at 12 pm it was still at 25.20. PM 10 at 12 noon today was 511 and PM 2.5 at 10.30 was 288.

At Civil Lines, Benzene at 7 am was 15.59 and it was still at 10.93 at 11.30 am. PM 10 was 594.48 at 7 am today and it was at 508.58 at 11.30 am. PM 2.5 was at 221.26 at 11.30 am.

At IGI Airport, Benzene was above 11 till 11.30 am. PM10 was at 219.15 at 11.30 am with no data available for PM 2.5.

At Mandir Marg, PM 10 was at 617 at 12 noon today and PM 2.5 at 141 at the same time.

At Punjabi Bagh, PM 10 was at 672 at 11.30 am, while PM 2.5 was at 309 at 10.30, though it dipped to some extent after that.

At R K Puram, PM 10 was at 598 at 11.30 am and at 471 at 12 noon whereas, PM 2.5 was at 238 at 11 am today.

With best wishes for a Pollution Free Delhi. We will support Odd Even plus any more stringent steps, to combat pollution in Delhi.

B S Vohra

www.RWABhagidari.com 

Odd Even Pollution Status of Delhi !

At Anand Vihar, Benzene was at 20.00 ( 8am ) i.e. 4 times of the norms and touched again the peak of 20.80 ( 8pm ), though in between it varied from one position to other. PM 10 was around 361 ( 10 am ) & PM 2.5 was at 190 ( 10 – 10.30 am ) i.e. more than 3 times.

At Civil Lines Benzene touched the peak of 7.90 (8.30 am), PM 10 was mostly between Appx. 300 to 400. At 7.30 am it touched the peak of 423.20, again at 1.30 pm it climbed to 394.36 and at 7.30 pm, it was again at 390.95. PM 2.5 was between 340.21 ( 8 am ) to 253.13 ( 11.30 am ).

At Punjabi bagh, PM10 was between 408 ( 8am ) to 313 ( 10.30 am ) while PM 2.5 was between 140 ( 8am ) to 119 ( 10.30 am ). At R K Puram, PM10 was at 384 ( 10 – 10.30 am ) while PM 2.5 was at 152 ( 9am ) to 136 ( 10.30 am ).

At IGI Airport Benzene was as usual on the higher side at more than 9 upto 11 am., PM 10 was in the range of 200, though previous days average was 359 and PM 2.5 data was not available. At Mandir marg PM 10 was between 298 to 216 ( 8 – 10.30 am ), while PM 2.5 was almost within the limit during this tenure.

Indian Institute of Tropical Meterology, showed the Air Quality level at Moderate level at 5.45 pm today in Delhi. It showed PM 10 at an average of 202.4 and PM 2.5 at 75.4. It has predicted the Moderate Air Quality Level in Delhi for the next two days and for the same period in Mumbai & Pune, it’s showing the Air Quality Level as GOOD.

Thanks

B S Vohra

www.RWABhagidari.com 

Odd-even back, traffic eases - Half-cooked exemption for schoolchildren falls flat

New Delhi, April 15: Delhi's roads seemed empty today as odd-even vehicle rationing returned three months after the pollution control experiment was first tried.

Toxic gases and particulate matter remained above safe limits although travel time was cut by at least two-thirds - both trends having continued from the first phase.

Unlike the first trial, the schools are open. Today, however, was Ram Navami and most schools, government offices and private firms remained closed. Also, many Delhi residents have headed to the hills for the long weekend.

"Many kids in our area have skipped school - the Guru Harkrishan Public School here was open," Krishna Nagar resident B.S. Vohra told this newspaper. "Some of those who neither take buses nor have arranged for carpools decided to skip classes."

The government has exempted cars carrying school-uniform-wearing children but not those returning after dropping them or going to pick them up - in effect, nullifying the exemption.

But transport minister Gopal Rai played down the inconsistency, highlighting the continuing exemption to women drivers (provided they are not driving adult male passengers).

"Eighty-five per cent of those who drop children to school and pick them up are women," he told reporters, without revealing the source of the stat.

"They should enquire about other children in their vicinity and drop them at their homes too."

Yogesh Agrawal, who normally drives his son to school in east Delhi before coming to his shop near Parliament, woke up early today.

"We decided to walk to his school. In the afternoon, his grandfather will walk him back. We're lucky that the school isn't too far. Others are carpooling or have booked autos."

One of Delhi's 15-odd auto-rickshaw unions and a taxi drivers' union have declared a strike on Monday demanding 10,000 new auto permits and a ban on mobile-app-based cabs found violating the CNG-fuel norm.

Delhi has only around one lakh autos, almost a fifth of which run without legal papers, to cater to its population of 1.65 crore - the lowest auto-to-population ratio in India.

The government and the schools are promoting carpooling. "We normally encourage them to carpool even without the odd-even rationing in force," Bal Bharati Public School principal L.V. Sehgal said.

Entrepreneur Anchal Agarwal has just bought a third car - a diesel SUV with even number plates. She already has a sedan and a hatchback with odd number plates. People can buy an even or odd registration number for Rs 20,000 in Delhi.

"As a woman, I'm exempt but my brother and father need to travel to work. My brother drives 50km from Anand Lok to Wazirpur every day," she said. "We plan to sell one of the old cars."

By evening, 1,311 cars had been fined Rs 2,000 for violations. The government plans to fine-tune the scheme in this round and make it a permanent feature every month.

With thanks : Telegraph - Kolkatta - LINK

Do you think ODD EVEN has any impact on the Air Quality of Delhi ?

Yeah ! this is now a big question. There seems not much respite if we go through various official sites to check the data connected with Air Pollution. Not much respite in Pollution in Delhi, though it was a Saturday when most of the Govt offices are closed. The only visible benefit of Odd Even is the lesser traffic on roads, but at the cost of thousands, who have to face difficulty at various levels.

At Anand vihar Benzene touched a peak of  27.70 at 10 am, while PM 10 remained somewhere between  422 > 418 > 357, 2 - 2.30 pm 389  and PM 2.5 the most dangerous particulate matters were as high as 286 at 11 – 11.30 am i.e. almost 4 - 5 times of the prescribed limits.

At Mandir marg PM10 touched 482 at 8 – 8.30 am with no data after that, while PM 2.5 in the early morning was at 196 & 183, it came down to 136 at 8 am and to 94 at 10.30 with no data after that, but was much higher than the prescribed norms.

At Punjabi Bagh, PM10 was at 456 at 10 – 10.30 am with missing data figures, while PM 2.5 touched 418 at 9.30 am i.e. almost 7 times of the prescribed norms.

While RK Puram had a peak of PM 10 at 465 at 10 am, PM2.5 was almost 2 – 3 times, all the time.

IGI Airport had Benzene levels of 9.75 to 8.16 between 10 – 12 am,  PM 10 was almost twice all the time, while previoys days Average shown was 388.50, with no data available for PM 2.5

At Civil lines, Benzene was almost  2 – 3 times, PM 10 at 8 am was 563 though few hours earlier it had touched the peak of  690.40, it came down to 338.92 by 12 noon. PM 2.5 was almost 2 - 3 times all the time, though previous days average was 144.52 i.e. more than two times.

Though Indian Institute of Tropical Metrology showed PM 10 at 239.90 at Delhi as Moderate, it showed PM 2.5 at 114.9 as POOR Air Quality. Benzene Average at Arjun Nagar in East Delhi was 8.72 much higher than prescribed 5. Anand Vihar again showed the Average PM 10 of 459 while PM 2.5 at 141.  

The Odd Even may have little respite, but do we have any other option ?  I don't think so. Situation is really bad. In spite of Odd Even, there is not much respite and there seems no other visible instant alternative in sight. Therefore, we have no other option, but to support the steps being taken to improve the Air quality in Delhi. Let's see what happens on Monday, that will be a real test to #oddeven. Yeah ! lesser traffic on the road, looks great, but again at the cost of those, who are forced ( Rs 2,000 Challan ), should never be treated as an achievement.

With best regards,

B S Vohra
www.RWABhagidari.com 

RAM EK KHOJ : Watch Mr Prateek Trivedi on Ibn7 at 9pm tonight, Live from Srilanka

Odd Even - Day One Status

Must remember, it was Ram Navmi, a Holiday.

Anand Vihar # :

BENZENE : maximum prescribed limit is 5

At 8am it was 46.90,  8.30 am 52.30, 9am 47.20,  9.30am 41.90, 10am 39.80, 10.30am 33.10, 11am 26.70, 11.30am 25.90 i.e. much above maximum prescribed.

PM 10 : maximum prescribed limit is 100

At 9.30 am it was 492, 10.00 am 439, 10.30 am 439, 2 pm 465, 3 pm 538, 4.30 pm 548.

PM 2.5 : maximum prescribed limit is 60

At 9 – 9.30 am it was 419, 10 – 10.30 308

Mandir Marg # :

PM 10 : maximum prescribed limit is 100

At 8.30 am it was 482 and no details after that.

PM 2.5 : maximum prescribed limit is 60

At 8 – 9.30 am it was 136, 10 – 10.30 94, and no details after that. 

Punjabi Bagh # :

PM 10 : maximum prescribed limit is 100

At 10 to 10.30 am it was 453, 11 – 11.30  392, with missing data at different timings.

PM 2.5 : maximum prescribed limit is 60

At 8 – 9.30 am it was 151, 10 – 10.30 206, 11 – 11.30 145 and so on.  

R K Puram # :

PM 10 : maximum prescribed limit is 100

At 8 to 8.30 am it was 613, 9 – 9.30  213, and so on.

PM 2.5 : maximum prescribed limit is 60

At 8 – 8.30 am it was 298, 9 – 9.30 206, 11 – 11.30 145 and at 5 pm it again climbed to 173.

IGI Airport # :

BENZENE : maximum prescribed limit is 5

At 8am to 10 am it was 10.01,  and for the rest of the time it was above 8.

PM 10 : maximum prescribed limit is 100

At 8 am it was 185.95 and at 4.30 pm it climbed to 238.61.

PM 2.5 : maximum prescribed limit is 60

No Data Available.

Civil Lines # :

BENZENE : maximum prescribed limit is 5

At 3am it was 39.80 and with various ups & downs it was at 8 am at 17.14.

PM 10 : maximum prescribed limit is 100

At 6.30 to 7.30 it was at 933.16 and at 8 am it was 831.37, and at 8.30 pm it climbed to 842.12, with various ups & downs, it ended at 4.30 pm it was 338.06.

PM 2.5 : maximum prescribed limit is 60

At 1 am it had touched the peak of 797.57 i.e. almost 13 + times and with various ups & downs at 4pm it was 271.36 & at 4.30 239.08.

Trying to analyze data from various sources. will revert.

best regards,

B S Vohra
www.RWABhagidari.com 

# Source DPCC with thanks.

Air Pollution : PM 2.5 Risk Factors !

Good 0-50	It’s a great day to be active outside.
Moderate 51-100	Some people who may be unusually sensitive to particle pollution.	Unusually sensitive people: Consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion. Watch for symptoms such as coughing or shortness of breath. These are signs to take it easier. Everyone else: It’s a good day to be active outside.
Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups 101-150	Sensitive groups include people with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teenagers.	Sensitive groups: Reduce prolonged or heavy exertion. It’s OK to be active outside, but take more breaks and do less intense activities. Watch for symptoms such as coughing or shortness of breath. People with asthma should follow their asthma action plans and keep quick relief medicine handy. If you have heart disease: Symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath, or unusual fatigue may indicate a serious problem. If you have any of these, contact your heath care provider.
Unhealthy 151 to 200	Everyone	Sensitive groups: Avoid prolonged or heavy exertion. Move activities indoors or reschedule to a time when the air quality is better. Everyone else: Reduce prolonged or heavy exertion. Take more breaks during all outdoor activities.
Very Unhealthy  201-300	Everyone	Sensitive groups: Avoid all physical activity outdoors. Move activities indoors or reschedule to a time when air quality is better. Everyone else: Avoid prolonged or heavy exertion. Consider moving activities indoors or rescheduling to a time when air quality is better.
Hazardous 301-500	Everyone	Everyone: Avoid all physical activity outdoors. Sensitive groups: Remain indoors and keep activity levels low. Follow tips for keeping particle levels low indoors.

Odd Even in Delhi from Tomorrow !

(i) The plying of non-transport four wheeled vehicles (Motor Cars etc.) having registration number ending with odd digit (1,3,5,7,9) shall be prohibited on even dates of the month of April (i.e. 16th ,18th, 20th, 22nd, 26th and so on) and plying of the non-transport Vehicles having registration number ending with even digit (0,2,4,6,8) shall be prohibited on odd dates of the month of April (i.e. 15th , 19th, 21st, 23rd ,25th and so on). 

(ii) These restrictions shall also apply to the non-transport four wheeled vehicles bearing registration number of other states. 

(iii) These restrictions shall be applicable from 8 AM to 8 PM of such dates. 

(iv) These restrictions shall not be applicable on Sundays. 

(v)  These restrictions shall not apply to the vehicles of such categories as mentioned in the Schedule annexed to this notification. 

(vi)  Violation of these orders shall attract a fine of Rs. 2OOO/- in accordance with the provisions of sub- section (1) of section L94 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

Odd Even Vs Pollution levels in Delhi at 5 pm - 14.04.2016 !

Odd Even Vs. Pollution levels in Delhi is truly the main cause of concern & attention, in the present scenario. I just checked the PM 10 & PM 2.5 at various locations and the out come is as below :

14.04.2016   -   5 PM

At Anand Vihar :

Particulate Matter < 10 µg	Thursday, April 14, 2016	17:00:00	310 µg/m3	100 µg/m3
Particulate Matter < 2.5 µg	Thursday, April 14, 2016	17:00:00	62 µg/m3	60 µg/m3

At Mandir marg :

Particulate Matter < 10 µg	Thursday, April 14, 2016	17:20:00	99 µg/m3	100 µg/m3
Particulate Matter < 2.5 µg	Thursday, April 14, 2016	17:20:00	7 µg/m3	60 µg/m3

At Punjabi Bagh : 

Particulate Matter < 10 µg	Thursday, April 14, 2016	17:15:00	153 µg/m3	100 µg/m3
Particulate Matter < 2.5 µg	Thursday, April 14, 2016	17:15:00	21 µg/m3	60 µg/m3

At R K Puram : 

Particulate Matter < 10 µg	Thursday, April 14, 2016	17:20:00	157 µg/m3	100 µg/m3
Particulate Matter < 2.5 µg	Thursday, April 14, 2016	17:20:00	49 µg/m3	60 µg/m3

At IGI Airport :

Particulates PM 10 (Real Time)	Thursday, April 14, 2016	16:45:00	195.03 µg/m3	100 µg/m3
Particulates PM 2.5 (Real Time)	Thursday, April 14, 2016	16:45:00	Data not available	60 µg/m3

At Civil Lines : 

Particulates PM 10 (Real Time)	Thursday, April 14, 2016	16:30:00	386.77 µg/m3	100 µg/m3
Particulates PM 2.5 (Real Time)	Thursday, April 14, 2016	16:30:00	209.07 µg/m3	60 µg/m3

Will try to upload regularly the comparative data for all the odd / even days in Delhi. Let's see what's the real outcome.

Thanks

B S Vohra
www.RWABhagidari.com
www.RWABhagidari.blogspot.in