Chennai, Sep 28 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) will monitor noise levels across Chennai during Diwali using 60 stations installed in the city’s 15 zones as part of a study with IIT-Madras.
The monitoring will allow the board to examine festival noise alongside readings collected at the same locations over an extended period.
Four stations equipped with low-cost sensors were set up in each zone last year. They recorded ambient noise levels during the day and at night from March to December 2025.
TNPCB has now extended the observation period by another year, bringing this Diwali within the scope of the study.
A TNPCB official said the festival warranted closer attention because of the high noise levels Chennai experiences during the celebrations.
“We have extended the period of observation by one more year. The sensors will also track noise levels during Diwali. For a city like Chennai, which sees high noise during the festival, more stringent monitoring is required,” the official said.
In September 2024, the board partnered with IIT-Madras to map noise levels in cities with populations exceeding one million.
Chennai was chosen for the pilot, with the sensors distributed across all its zones rather than confined to a single part of the city.
The official said TNPCB was considering installing sensors in other cities after the Chennai study. Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli and Salem are among the cities under consideration.
Environmentalists welcomed the decision to continue monitoring through the festival but urged the board to publish readings from every station.
They said access to the complete set of observations would help the public understand how noise varies between locations and whether the monitoring reflects conditions across Chennai.
G Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal said the accuracy of the sensors also needed attention.
“Additionally, the sensors’ calibration must be checked. The data released must be representative of the whole city and not just a few places,” he said.
The extended study will add festival readings to the measurements already gathered over ten months in 2025.
Whether those readings provide a reliable picture of noise across the city will depend, environmentalists said, on the quality of the sensors and the release of data from all 60 locations.
Their call for station-wise data and calibration checks accompanies the board’s plan to continue citywide monitoring.
