Pune engineer Abhijit Vaidya has developed Desibel, a website that allows residents to record local noise levels using a mobile phone, creating a public database for a form of pollution for which regular city-level data is not readily available.
The platform, available at desibel.in, is intended to collect noise readings through public participation. Users can record sound levels without registering, and the website says that the location and time associated with a reading are automatically added to a public record.
According to the information provided on the website, a user must open desibel.in in a mobile browser from a location where the sound level appears high. The phone’s microphone then listens to the surrounding sound for up to one minute and measures the level. The platform says the user’s name and audio recording are not stored, keeping the user’s identity confidential.
The website can be used to record noise generated through different sources, including loudspeakers, drums used during processions and construction activity. The initiative comes as Pune and other Indian cities continue to face complaints about excessive noise, while publicly available, regularly updated data remains limited compared with air-quality information.
Residential areas have a prescribed noise limit of 55 decibels during the day and 45 decibels at night. The use of loudspeakers is also prohibited at night, according to the report. Despite these rules, noise from public events, traffic, construction and other urban activities remains a recurring concern for residents.
Government agencies, including the Central Pollution Control Board, work on noise pollution-related issues, but the report notes that regular data on the problem is not generally available. This creates a gap between the existence of legal limits and the ability of citizens to understand how often and where those limits may be exceeded.
Desibel is designed to address that gap through a distributed record of local measurements rather than a single monitoring point. Its public entries could help show when and where residents are encountering high sound levels, although the platform’s readings are citizen-generated and do not replace measurements or enforcement by authorised agencies.
The project follows Vaidya’s earlier work on MausamNow, a website created to provide updated weather information. The engineer said the new platform was developed to build awareness about noise pollution and collect data through public participation.
The issue gained attention in Pune ahead of the Ganesh festival after Vidyanand Bapat raised concerns about noise pollution, according to the report. Desibel now offers residents a way to document local conditions while keeping personal identification out of the public record. The website’s continued usefulness will depend on the volume, geographic spread and consistency of readings submitted by users.
