Foreword

The festival of lights "Deepawali" is a major festival in India. Crackers are used on the occasion of Deepawali festival. Bursting of crackers produces high level of noise, smoke, dust resulting in exceedance of prescribed standards. Central Pollution Control Board has been conducting regular monitoring since 1993 to ascertain the nature, extent of ambient noise and air pollution created by bursting of crackers during Deepawali.

The present report, depicting the status of ambient noise level and air quality during Deepawali festival days for the four consecutive years 1999 -2002, is the third in series. As per the direction of The Hon'ble Supreme Court, time restriction on bursting of crackers have been imposed besides fixing noise level standards for the crackers.

We hope, the document will be useful to the authorities and public dealing with noise and air pollution control.