Mumbai: Bombay HC on Friday directed a notice to be issued to the state govt and other authorities on a petition regarding high-intensity floodlights and billboards causing light pollution in Mumbai and Thane.The petition was filed by Nilesh Desai, a Charni Road resident and IT professional who has been “severely affected by increasing use of floodlights by gymkhanas along Marine Drive”. “These lights [are] often left on late into the night for sporting events as well as marriages and large scale social events… The glare from the floodlights illuminates entire buildings, disturbing residents’ sleep on a nightly basis, resulting in the families in these neighbourhoods being stuck in a chronic cycle of poor and inadequate sleep,” it said. It added that residents are forced to put “expensive blackout curtains/blinds to avoid light trespass into their homes”.Desai’s advocate Ronita Bhattacharya Bector told Chief Justice M C Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna that functions “go on till late night at three gymkhanas—Wilson Gymkhana, Islam Gymkhana and Police Gymkhana”. Since 2016, Desai has been filing complaints and meticulously following up with the authorities, she said. In 2018, action was taken by the collector who owns lands leased to gymkhanas. The advocate said, “Light pollution is not regulated the way other pollutants are... There is a vacuum in the law.”She referred to HC’s Feb 1998 order on similar facts, where BMC was directed to see to it that neon lights are turned off at 11pm. A Chowpatty resident had filed a PIL that neon lights from hoardings were disturbing him. A committee reported that neon lights have an adverse impact on health. Bector asked that HC’s 11pm direction be maintained during the festive season. However, the judges adjourned the hearing to Nov 20.The other respondent authorities are the collector, BMC, police commissioner and central and state pollution control boards, and the environment ministry.
