Moradabad amongst world’s noisiest cities: UNEP

NEW DELHI: As per the Annual Frontier’s Report published by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) titled ‘Noise Blazes and Mismatches’, Moradabad is the second noisiest city in the world, after Dhaka, Bangladesh. A total of 61 cities have been listed in the report, out of which, five are in India. Moradabad’s noise pollution level was recorded at 114 decibels (db) while Dhaka stood at a worrying 119 db. This is alarmingly higher than the permissible limit of 55 db for residential areas and 70 db for commercial areas.

The Annual Frontier Report talks about emerging threats to the environment, every year. This year’s reports look at three issues it considers to be threatening to the environment- Noise Pollution, Wildfires and Phenological shifts. Along with enumerating the issues, the report also mentions possible methods to mitigate these issues.

The report urged that traffic, construction, and security alarms constitute ‘urban soundscapes’ and can cause lasting damage to physical and mental health. The solution to the problem lies with nature. Trees and vegetation absorb the noise and create balance in the environment by producing calm soothing sounds like rustling of leaves, etc. Cities need to increase green cover in the form of public parks and more trees.

Another threat from climate change is increasing instances of destructive wildfires. Warming of temperatures contribute to increasing risk of wildfires in the forests. These fires emit harmful particulate matter and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, in turn raising global temperature. Climate Change is also causing phenological shifts, that is, disruption in lifecycles of plant and animal species. This is an alarming trend, since animal and plant life cycles are in sync with climactic conditions. Creating wildlife corridors can provide safe ecosystems to the biodiversity. However, what we most urgently need to focus, is reducing CO2 emissions.