Increasing population and urbanisation have led to the development of the small mountain towns like Bhowali in recent years. Bhowali is well connected to other parts of Kumaon and has better transport and communication facilities that attracted many people to shift here for better education and employment.
The serene environment and its proximity to the railway station at Kathgodam has made it a better choice from people of bigger cities like Delhi and other parts of North India too.
To fulfill the needs of the growing population, many commercial activities have being increasing in different parts of this town and provided employment to many people. One of these activities is construction and allied trades like carpentry.
This has also resulted in mushrooming of many small furniture showrooms in different residential and commercial locations like Ramagrh Road, Ghorakhal Road, Gandhi Colony and Ranikhet Road among others.
Apart from making wooden furniture, such businesses also manufacture doors and wooden panels on a larger scale for the upcoming buildings and flats.
They have installed heavy machinery, running on common commercial electricity loads, to cut larger wooden logs that not only creates noise and air pollution but also is a medium for utilising wood sourced illegally. The harsh sound emanating from these machines running day and night at times also disrupt the normal life of the people living in the vicinity of such establishments and creating many health problems for the locals. Continuous exposure to high decibels of sounds can cause serious hearing problem, poor cognitive functions, cardiovascular diseases, sleeping disorders and fatigue along with increased stress, headaches and anxiety. While poor air quality in the vicinity causes asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory diseases. As per the law such establishments are banned in residential areas.
Observers opine that the administration is empowered to ban such activities to stop public nuisance under the Environment Protection Act and Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000.
However, not only is no such action taken, even the police verification of persons working in such shops is not conducted.
It remains to be seen if the authorities wake up to the problems being caused by such unregulated enterprises that are affecting the environment and life of people in Bhowali.