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At last a group of citizens have taken an initiative to tackle noise pollution in Bangalore which IMO is highest in the country. Main culprit being 2 stroke autos manufactured by HAMARA BAJAJ. There are close to 1 lakh autos in Bangalore and most of them are 2 strokes, first thing these people do after buying them is remove baffle plates from the factory fitted silencers. This has been going on for ages and effects of extreme noise pollution are being felt now.

According to experts, noise health effects are both health and behavioral in nature. Noise pollution can cause annoyance and aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and other harmful effects. This in turn has an effect on our work life and in our relationship with our families and friends.

No body is spared from effects of noise pollution be it your 6 month baby or 70 year old father, but particularly motorists, policemen & auto drivers themselves are highly affected.

Already Bangalore has high number of suicides, high percentage of diabetics and known to have very stressful living conditions. It is for experts to debate whether high noise pollution contributes to any of this.

If one person or company could be blamed for this it should be Bajaj Auto. Despite promising that only 4 stroke autos would be produced, it is mindlessly manufacturing 2 strokes at will. The health effects these monsters are creating across India are un-imaginable. They are designed to run on kerosene, used oil and what not. If you travel to any small town in Karnataka or Andhra, pungent emissions from these vehicles would knock you out. If I remember well Bajaj Auto was thrown out of some far eastern country for manufacturing polluting vehicles, but for them Indians don’t mind and keep on manufacturing probably only 2 stroke vehicle in India today (if you discount a few mopeds).

Unnecessary honking is no small culprit of noise pollution; December 1 would be observed as No Honking Day in Bangalore.

Karnataka State Pollution Control Board is toothless. Its chief usually comes on TV during Diwali to educate people on effects of noise pollution but for them noise from autos doesn’t exist.

Any how a few good minded people, calling themselves MISSION PEACE have taken an initiative to tackle this and we from Team-BHP should welcome and support this. One person who is working tirelessly on this is Justice M.F.Saldanha (Retd.).

This is their request

If YOU are someone who believes in this cause we invite you to JOIN us. Please contact any one of us

Project co-ordinators
Dr Sunita de Sousa – Leader
Associate Director, Biochemistry,
AstraZeneca India Pvt Ltd, Bangalore
sunita.desousa@astrazeneca.com 98453 79296
website: Mission Peace Bangalore

Disha Awasthy –Awareness Campaigns in Schools, Colleges
adisha_2000@yahoo.com 98800 56271

Naina Hegde- Media Awareness Campaigns;
hegdenaina@yahoo.co.in; 98860 59256
Lakshmi Ramachandran- Govt Regulators
mail.lakshmir@gmail.com 99163 51045
Dr K.N. Mahesh, R. Rane & B. Halesha - Auto Driver Campaigns
99805 54280, 98802 96654, 99456 99183 maheshkn2424@gmail.com

Press Club, Cubbon Park
Bangalore

I am on the Board...
arin_12@lycos.com
I also tried to put my view on KA Pollution Board Site But Never succed as usual. I am daily commuter on Inner ring Road and Hosur Road...

KSPCB Grievance Online Registration, Karnataka

I don't understand why Bajaj is allowed to Manufacture the 2 Stroke Auto. The 2 Stroke Bike has been closed long time back why our GOVT didnt stop the 2 Stroke Auto too.
Again here game of some politician. Are Bajaj too are not concern about the environment.
Few days back I read one article saying that if the trend continue in Bangalore then by 2020 not even single bangalorean will be healthy.

I hope someone does something about the noise from autorickshaws and the auto- goods carriers especially the Piaggio Apes.

two stroke engines are cheaper to maintain.when they remove the original cat-con(if any) ,then the noise will be unbearable.I personally felt the bajaj autorickshaws in bangaloor city is very much noisy than the same autorickshaws plying in my town.

Bajaj got 4 stroke models.but rickshaw walas swear by 2 stroker RE model.

Thanks Sowmya, it's not anymore somebody's problem we have to take initiative. Please forward this link to as many people as possible.

website: Mission Peace Bangalore

Any update on this? The noise in front of my house from these autorickshaws has become quite unbearable.
Why can't the manufacturer do a recall (a la Toyota) and fix the noise problem :D

kreddy, Sowmya

As much as I admire what you both are doing for Bangalore, by taking up noise pollution, I must say that the fault isn't only with bajaj.
Yes Bajaj makes 2 stroke autos but try going to T.N Chennai or some other state where the exact same autos make half or even lesser noise.
Why you may ask?

99% of the autos in our glorious Bangalore city have modified silencers. umm lets call it free flow exhaust for the autos. :uncontrol

There was even an article on times as to why the autos makes so much noise. It turns out that most of the drivers modify their silencers to get better F.E and lower the maintenance. And some drivers openly admitted that they do this because they like the sound.
Even I have asked a couple of auto drivers why they do this and I personally got the same answer.

Imho, we shouldn't be blaming bajaj rather we should go after the auto drivers who modify their silencers and fine them heavily and educate them on noise pollution.
The police here turn a deaf ear to the autos, I haven't seen a single auto being stopped or fined for a loud/improper silencer or for any other reason.
While they have enough time to stop nice sounding free flows on cars and bikes which produce less than half the sound of the autos!

@ Moonza, Bajaj auto's also do manufacture 4-stroke auto's. The newer ones are cleaner,less noisy and are greener.

In B'lore and Mysore majority of auto's that ply on the road are the ones which are picked up from other states, mainly from Kerala after the original owner decided to sell it for obvious reasons ( read sold as scraps ). These auto's which are already in bad shape are further tampered with mainly the silencers and are made to run mostly on kerosene which tends to create both sound and air pollution.

Older 2stroke auto's are still cleaner and less nosier until they are tampered by the owners. I don't think there is a reason for any manufacturer to recall back vehicles to fix issues which have been caused purposefully by the owners. Until the govt decided to ban all the 2stroke auto's in the city we have no other option but to live with it.

PS: These days if i have to commute in an auto, i make sure to hire ONLY a 4 stroke auto...just doing my part for a greener world :D:D.

when i saw name of thread, i surely thought its to do with Autos. They are simply pathetic! In contrast, the autos in Mangalore are smooth running 4 strokes. in addition to noise pollution, these auto people add cheap kerosene petrol to auto I. Due to this those crap autos give out lot of smoke as well.

Long back i decided, i will take as auto as minimum as possible. in last 4.5 years in Bangalore, may be i have taken auto at the max 10 times :D Even if I taken, I try to get those 4 stoke ones!

+1 to this. I try my best to avoid autos. use bus taxi if possible. the noise is unbeareable. the cops turn a deaf ear to them. probably deaf already..noise induced heaaring loss.

One thing I noticed in my brief (one week) visit to Bangalore - Vehicles keep on honking at red lights, as if their honking would turn the traffic light to green faster. Have you noticed this, or is it just me?

You could have seen it. Could depend on some roads where it could be higher. A while ago there was a survey among big cities and Bengaluru was supposed to have less honking.

Thanks Captain Slow,

I agree with you, these autos have silencers modified by vehicle owners/drivers to extract more mileage and speed. But why has Bajaj Auto not stopped manufacturing 2 stroke autos while there are hardly any 2 strokers produced in India?

If you go to any smaller towns in AP and Karnataka you cannot bear the exhaust fumes of these autos. They mainly run on kerosene and used engine oil.

Recently my visit to Kolkata was surprising... Most of them are using new auto's with a very minimal sound. No tamper is permitted their. Even KP banned all the loud crackers durnig diwali :)
Here we can also see honking at night with out any reason/reason. Instead they can easily use DIM/DIP light to alert other objects.