page_title: Awaaz Foundation
section_title: Noise pollution
hierarchical_section_title: Awaaz Foundation / Noise pollution
caption_attribution_description: English: Silence Zones were notified after public interest litigation by Awaaz Foundation but religious places were left out of the initial notification. Religious places were notified after a subsequent Court order in August 2009 when noise readings from religious places were placed before the Bombay High Court .
context_page_description: Awaaz Foundation is a charitable trust and non-governmental organisation in Mumbai, India which builds awareness, carries out advocacy, and is involved in educational projects to protect the environment and prevent environmental pollution. It has impacted many important decisions by the government and influenced policy making in important environmental matters in India. The beneficiaries of the Foundation are the citizens of India at large.
  Awaaz Foundation was founded on 21 February 2006 by Sumaira Abdulali, a well-known environmentalist, who has exposed many scandals of environmental villainy in India at personal risk. The Foundation has filed several public interest litigations, including demands for strict implementation of noise pollution laws, better functioning of Mumbai’s Tree Authority, reducing noise pollution, banning sale of tobacco to minors, efforts to counter the politically sponsored sand mining mafia and recognition of the biodiverse Sawantwadi-Dodamarg wildlife corridor as an ecologically sensitive area.
context_section_description: Noise pollution is a serious health hazard and can cause annoyance and aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, heart disease, mental illness and other serious effects on health. Like smoking, noise pollution affects active and passive recipients when noise levels cross certain safe boundaries. Anti-Social behaviour such as public use of firecrackers and Loudspeakers is a highly sensitive social issue in India. 
  Among the major forms of pollution in India is noise pollution. There is no parallel in the world to the noise pollution generated during festivals and religious celebrations in India. For Indians, making noise is a sign of happiness. For politicians the ability to make a big noise, by using huge loudspeakers at any opportunity, is a sign of strength. Festivals in India have become political battlegrounds as politicians try to score brownie points over one another by attempting to host the noisiest festival. The use of loudspeakers, permitted by the courts on certain occasions, often exceeds the permissible decibel limit, causing a great deal of stress and anxiety to the neighbourhoods.
  Awaaz Foundation has advocated against noise pollution from various sources and has conducted campaigns to create awareness of adverse health effects from noise in a methodical and scientific manner. The various noise pollution campaigns of the Foundation have received widespread public support and turned into a public movement in Mumbai followed by the rest of the country. Increased awareness and vigilance of citizens has resulted in policy change, better systems and better implementation of Noise Rules.
  Awaaz Foundation systematically collected noise pollution data for the first time in India, collated and presented it to the State and Union Governments, Courts, police and citizens.  Data was generated of noise levels at major events since 2003, from sources including firecrackers, traffic, loudspeakers, industrial equipment and construction.
  In 2010 Awaaz Foundation tested noise levels of helicopters after several leading Industrialists applied for permission to build private helipads atop their residential buildings in densely populated areas of Mumbai. After the data was presented in court. permission to use private helipads in all urban areas of India were banned by the MoEF.
  Also based on data presented to MoEF during the pendency of the public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court, Government of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests accepted all recommendations by Awaaz Foundation on 11 January 2010 for stricter noise laws in the country and issued a new notification to ban use of loudspeakers, musical instruments and honking in the areas demarcated as silence zones, including areas around religious places throughout India.
  The MoEF denied permission to the State Government of Maharashtra to permit private helipads for personal use of individuals atop residential buildings and included other sources of noise such as traffic and construction noise within the ambit of the Rules for the first time.
  Awaaz foundation filed a Public Interest Litigation on 12 November 2007 in Mumbai High Court seeking implementation of Noise Pollution Rules, 2000, which contemplate creation of silence zones around educational places, courts, hospitals and religious places also.
  In 2009 the Bombay High Court accepted the need for implementation of stricter noise laws and ordered the State Government to implement Noise Pollution regulation rules notified by 'Central Pollution board', (one of the Subordinate and statutory bodies) of Government of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests. Consequent to the Bombay High Court Order, the State Government of Maharashtra initially notified and asked municipal bodies in the state to demarcate an area of 100 metres (330 ft) around educational institutions, hospitals and courts as silence zones but left out the areas surrounding religious places as silence zones. Awaaz Foundation once again petitioned the Court to have these places notified as 
caption: Sumaira Abdulali recording noise under a Silence Zone board at a religious place
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