Plant trees to save the earth.
Trees are the lungs of mother earth.
Trees are green gold.
We often come across such slogans. However, little do we know that trees and shrubs not only purify the air but also reduce noise pollution.
The planting of popular trees, like casuarinas, tamarind, banyan and neem, appears to provide a possible way of reducing noise pollution in towns. According to a study by a team of doctors and technicians at the Institute of Oto-Reino-Laryngology in Madras Medical College, these trees and certain other shrubs strongly reduce sound levels, particularly the din produced by the continuous bustle of automobiles.
As part of a project of the Science and Technology Department of the Central Government, the Institute conducted investigations into the effect of noise pollution on workers in four cities of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It was found that the exposure of these persons to traffic noise resulted in a considerable loss of hearing capacity over a period of time. The study of trees and shrubs being able to reduce noise was an offshoot of this project.
Trees and shrubs appear to act as good noise prevention screens, even through they cannot eliminate the noise completely. The green leaves actively absorb noise and the reduction may also be due to the physical blocking of sound waves by the stem and the bark, Perhaps it is because of this capacity that neem trees were traditionally planted in front yards of residences, tamarind trees on roadsides and banyan trees is tamples.For generations man has faced against the wild to create a world where only he decides whether animals and plants survive or are taken out. Earlier, we accepted it as self-evident that any differences in our environment brought about by science and technology must be improvements in the word of out ancestors.