A study of ambient air quality and noise pollution in Nainital city

Abstract

Nainital is a hill tourist place. It is famous for its natural beauty. Therefore, thousands of tourists from all over India and abroad come to visit this place. The environment of Nainital is fragile and sensitive, so it was intended to study the ambient air quality of the city. The present study includes the evaluation of ambient air quality and noise level. Ambient air monitoring has been conducted for suspended particulate matters, sulphur di-oxides and oxides of nitrogen at mall road (near Nagar Palika Library) and bus station (Tallital). The noise level monitoring was also conducted at different points of the city characterising commercial, residential area and silence zone. At other sites of silence zone, the values were usually beyond the prescribed limit. At all sites taken in commercial, areas, the values were beyond prescribed limit. The main sources of noise pollution in the city of Nainital is vehicular movements and the noise generated due to the use of horns of the vehicles. Similarly, the vehicular emissions are cause of air pollution. The SPM value at Nainital ranged from 88 to 366 mg/m3, sulphur dioxide remained in the range of 10.2 to 25mg/m3 and NO2 ranged between 13 and 86 mg/m3. The study revealed that the SPM and NO are beyond the limit prescribed for sensitive areas.