We make too much noise through excessive beating of drums, bursting of loud crackers and honking incessantly. The soft honking of BEST buses “pon pon” is iconic and not disturbing. We should be able to listen to the noise of “koyal ” and chirping of small birds. in Mumbai, it’s hard to see “khanjan”, “mainah” and such other birds, very tiny, colourful, agile and soothingly chirpy.
Many 2 wheeler owners have fitted very loud horns and these are meant to scare and give the right of way to them.
Our municipality must plant such trees which give colourful flowers, improve environment and shady and fruit bearing trees and those recommend by the botanists. We must have more parks and those must be kept open. One at Kalpak in Antop Hill remains locked in the morning. More and more open spaces for children and the elderly and these should be looked after jointly by the municipality and the corporates under CSR.
We have too many private cars on the roads and they are the source of noise and pollution. Why can’t a way be found to clear them? We should use more public transport. Use local trains, use buses, walk but the government must curb ownership of private cars, big and very big cars mostly for status symbol.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
The children are shocked by loud crackers. the gases emanating after serial use of crackers is health hazard for kids and the aged.