Noise eating Udaipur Lakes

It is common to hear how waste and boats are slowly killing Udaipur lakes, but the media and the government have been mum about the other two major sources of pollution - noise and light.

Several studies and research conducted in Fatehsagar, Udaisagar and Pichola lakes have concluded that loud noises emerging from the hotels and other commercial complexes around the lakes, coupled with bright lighting are killing the lake ecosystem.

Noise Pollution

A resident welfare association of Udaipur (name withheld due to privacy reasons) near lake Fatehsagar revealed that they had complained 12 times in a span of 4 months to the administration of the loud noises of weddings and other ceremonies being conducted at the hotels nearby.

Complaints were made via telephone, email, letters and also on the Rajasthan Sampark Portal where the police responded that they had taken action. Complaints made to the state pollution control board also went unnoticed.

However, despite this, hotels around the mentioned lake were regularly found violating noise pollution rules and the Noise Pollution Act. Playing music beyond 10 pm, till about 2-3 at night, blasting music beyond the permissible decibel limits, and turning the loudspeakers towards the lakes were some of the common complaints.

The office-bearer of the association also mentioned that the police checked the licenses of some of the common defaulting hotels and found that they had the license to play music up to 75 decibels.

The area around Fatehssgar is neither industrial nor commercial, but purely residential - so how did the UMC grant industrial are licenses?

As per the Noise Pollution Act, 2000, the following are the permissible limits in India:

In industrial areas, the permissible limit is 75 dB for daytime and 70 dB at night. In commercial areas, it is 65 dB and 55 dB, while in residential areas it is 55 dB and 45 dB during daytime and night respectively.

The Hotel License Rules of Udaipur Municipal Corporation also mention that playing loud music beyond permissible limits and to such an extent that music can be heard beyond 50 meters is strictly prohibited. They further state that continuous violations may lead to the cancellation of such licenses.  

Despite these, we see that no attention is paid either by hotel owners or the administration and it looks like a distant dream that the UMC would cancel a hotel owner’s license.

The annually conducted International Conference on Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life has been revealing the disastrous effects of noise on aquatic life, with visible results of the same being seen in Udaipur lakes too.

Death of fish, smaller aquatic insects, wetlands, birds and other related fauna is a common effect of this noise pollution.

In a paper published by Kanishka Mehta, she revealed the impact of increased human action and intervention in the lakes on birds. In her paper, lakes like Fatehsagar and Pichola that have buildings, parks, open gyms, food plazas, etc around were found to have the least amount of birds while Badi and Udaisagar are relatively untouched becoming a preferred choice for nesting and laying of eggs.

There was a time, almost a decade ago, when Fatehsagar would welcome migratory birds including a species of flamingos around Rani Road. These birds now no longer visit the lake due to increased human activity on Rani Road, cutting down of trees, erection of stone sculptures, and opening of open-air gyms.

The health of a lake is determined by how many lives can the lake support - and in Udaipur’s case, we find that the lakes are increasingly becoming polluted, their water is already unfit for consumption in its present state, and the collapse of the lake ecosystem.

It is important to remember that the lakes in the city are protected lakes under the Lake Development Act, Fatehsagar and Pichola are identified wetlands and in 2019, the state government had started a project to develop nine lakes in the district as wetlands.

We see that the health of the lakes and the environment is not a priority to the residents of the city, while the booming tourism industry is solely dependent on the natural beauty of this 600-year-old city.