DHAKA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- A High Court division bench in Bangladesh has given the country's vehicle owners 15 days to hand over pneumatic horns to relevant authorities to stop sound pollution.
The High Court division bench of Justice Quzi-Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Mohammad Ullah on Sunday passed the order, asking the law enforcers to destroy the pneumatic horns soon after getting those horns in hands.
The court passed the order on a petition filed by a local rights organization, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, which challenged the legality of such horn use and sought orders to stop sound pollution, especially in capital Dhaka where noise pollution goes wild.
A survey by the country's Department of Environment showed the decibel level in some Dhaka areas has exceeded the permissible limits of 45-60 to 130 decibels.
The survey, conducted between April and June last year, also found the situation deteriorating not only in Dhaka, but also in Bangladesh's second largest seaport city Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of Dhaka.
Because of sound pollution, millions of people especially in Dhaka are exposed to a number of health risks from deafness to heart attack.
To curb noise pollution, police in Dhaka in August destroyed around 10,000 illegal hydraulic horns which they seized over the previous couple of months.
