PANJIM: The sound levels at both the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festivals – Sunburn and Supersonic – were within the permissible limit, reveals Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) records.
Following an order from the National Green Tribunal (NGT), GSPCB had installed ambient sound monitoring stations at Vagator and Candolim to monitor the sound levels during the four-day festivals that ended on Wednesday. The stations were monitored by GSPCB staffers and reports were sent to the Board office daily.
“As per the records available so far, the sound level at both the EDM venues was within the permissible limit. The area being commercial zone, the sound level permitted is 75db and as per the High Court order it is 55db,” GSPCB chairman Jose Manuel Noronha said.
Most of the Board staffers being on leave, the Chairman was not in position to give the exact figures. “On one or two occasion, it was noticed that the sound limit was exceeded. Immediately directions were issued to the organizers by the engineers as well as police and accordingly the same was brought under control,” he added.
Noronha said the data cannot be manipulated. “The report will be placed before NGT in the first week of February,” he added.
NGT in its order had directed Goa Police to confiscate the sound system/amplifier and mixer if the organizers do not obey the High Court order to limit sound levels.
A written complaint was filed with GSPCB by activist and social worker Adv Rajneesh Shirodkar, who recorded sound levels at a peak of over 120 db at the two EDM music festivals on December 28 and 29.
