Environmental Noise Pollution in Kolhapur City, Maharashtra, India

Kolhapur is rapidly emerging as industrialized and urbanized cities in the state of Maharashtra. In the recent times, the city has started facing noise pollution problems due to rapid industrial growth, increased human population, high traffic density and modernized man-made activities. The present study was carried out to assess the environmental noise pollution in four different selected locations of Kolhapur city viz., educational area, commercial-cum-residential area, industrial-cum-residential area and silence zone. The key noise pollution indices such as noise climate (NC), equivalent continuous noise level (L_eq) and noise pollution level (L_np) were computed for the selected noise polluting sampling sites. Results indicated that the highest noise pollution level of 80.15 dB(A) was observed in industrial-cum-residential area followed by 71.17 dB(A) in commercial-cum-residential area, and 70.21 dB(A) in educational area. Least noise pollution level of 45.64 dB(A) was recorded in the silence zone, which also acted as control in the present study. Studies clearly reveal the alarming condition of noise pollution in Kolhapur city.