The Government’s direction put before the hotel and resort owners to seek prior permission for organising the sound and music programmes and DJs in the hitherto ‘silence zone’ of the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) landscape in Ramnagar maintaining silence zone norms during the ongoing festive occasions and December 31 celebrations, has found a few takers.
The matter of concern is that the hoteliers and resort owners particularly those who don’t have soundproof system in their establishments, seem to be little worried about seeking prior permission for running sound and light shows and DJs in hitherto silence zone of the CTR landscape in Ramnagar during this festive season ahead or on the occasion of December 31 celebrations.
As the officials concerned have informed only a few have taken permission for organising the sound and light shows. Only two or three hotel or resort owners have so far obtained permission for organising the sound and music programme, said S S Jangpangi, SDM Ramnagar and in charge of CTR landscape silence zone, Ramnagar, while talking to The Pioneer.
But we would strictly deal with those who are found violating the guidelines laid down for maintaining silence in this wildlife dominated area of the CTR landscape, asserted Jangpangi. We would like to maintain that those hoteliers and resort owners who have already put in place sound proof system, need not to seek any prior permission for running the sound and light shows/ DJs.
But those hoteliers and resort owners who don’t posses such facility must obtain prior permission for running such programmes, clarified Jangpangi. But the fact is that according to an estimate the number of hotels and resorts in this CTR region is running into hundreds. But only a handful hotels and resorts have sound proof banquet halls to run DJs and sound and light shows.
However, our priority is to keep the noise pollution level in the wildlife dominated area of CTR landscape under the permissible limit of about 50 decimal during day time and about 40 decimal during night. In this case the enforcement agencies will have to keep an eye on all those hoteliers and resort owners who are running sound and light shows even if they have obtained the permission for organsing the sound and music programmes.
The main objective is to keep the noise pollution level within permissible limit, added the official concerned. It is to note that the sound of music systems must not go beyond the laid down limit of 50 decimal during day time and 40 decimal during night hours even upto 500 meter away from the CTR silence zone. But surprisingly, despite strict guidelines to maintain silence in this thickly wildlife populated area, violation of these silence zone guidelines continues in the CTR landscape giving rise to noise pollution.
It is to be seen to what extent do the enforcement agencies become able to curb the menace of noise pollution in this sensitive wildlife habitat zone during this festive occasion ahead.