UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 108 of 150

Correct — A, Moradabad. The report the stem means is the United Nations Environment Programme's Frontiers 2022, subtitled 'Noise, Blazes and Mismatches', released in February 2022 ahead of the resumed fifth UN Environment Assembly. Its noise chapter compiled sound levels for sixty-one cities, and in that compilation Moradabad, in western Uttar Pradesh, was listed second at 114 decibels, behind Dhaka at 119 and ahead of Islamabad at 105. Two honest qualifications belong on the card. First, these are maximum reported levels drawn from already-published studies rather than readings from a UNEP field survey, so the table is a compilation, not a measurement campaign. Second, the Moradabad figure was publicly disputed: an official of the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board told the press that the board's own monitored levels for the city do not support 114 decibels. The card therefore states what the report listed, which is what the question asks and what the key marks, rather than treating 114 dB as an established measurement.

• (b)Patna — Patna is not among the Indian cities the report's noise table named. The Indian entries it did flag as exceeding permissible limits were Moradabad, Kolkata and Asansol, Jaipur and Delhi.
• (c)Kota — Kota does not appear in the report's list at all. It is in the option set as a plausible-sounding industrial city, not because of anything in Frontiers 2022.
• (d)Indore — Indore is the city most associated in Indian news with urban-environment rankings, which is exactly why it is here — but its reputation rests on cleanliness surveys and smart-city awards, not on noise. It is not in the report's noise table.

Frontiers is UNEP's annual emerging-issues report: it does not track a single indicator year after year but picks a handful of environmental problems that are about to become mainstream. The 2022 edition took three — urban noise pollution, wildfires, and phenological mismatches, meaning the growing gap between the timing of natural events such as flowering and the arrival of the pollinators or migrants that depend on them. The noise chapter is the one the exams picked up, and its argument is public-health rather than nuisance: sustained exposure raises the risk of hypertension, sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment in children and cardiovascular disease.

The trap in this question is that all four options are real Indian cities with environmental reputations, so recognition alone does not settle it. What settles it is that Frontiers 2022 was reported in India almost entirely as a Uttar Pradesh story, and UPPSC asks questions with a Uttar Pradesh hook whenever one exists — Moradabad is the only option with any connection to the report. For revision, the useful numbers are the regulatory ones rather than the headline: India's Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000 set a residential limit of 55 decibels by day and 45 by night, and the World Health Organization's guideline for residential outdoor noise is 53 decibels by day and 45 by night. Against either benchmark, every city in the report's table is far over.

• The report is UNEP's 'Frontiers 2022: Noise, Blazes and Mismatches', released in February 2022 before the resumed fifth UN Environment Assembly
• Its three themes are urban noise pollution, wildfires, and phenological mismatches in nature's timing
• The report listed Moradabad second among the cities it compiled at 114 dB, behind Dhaka at 119 dB, with Islamabad third at 105 dB; sixty-one cities were covered
• Other Indian cities the report flagged above permissible limits: Kolkata and Asansol at 89 dB, Jaipur at 84 dB, Delhi at 83 dB
• The figures are maximum reported levels drawn from published studies, not a UNEP field survey — and the Moradabad figure was publicly disputed by a Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board official
• India's residential noise limits under the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000 are 55 dB(A) by day and 45 dB(A) by night; the WHO guideline is 53 dB by day and 45 by night

• Reading the 114 dB figure as a measured municipal average; it is the maximum reported level from a compiled study, and it was contested
• Attributing Frontiers to the WHO or to the World Bank — it is UNEP's own emerging-issues report
• Confusing air-quality rankings, in which several other Indian cities lead, with this noise compilation

UPPSC asks international reports by asking which city, state or country was ranked where — and it selects the year's report that has a Uttar Pradesh angle. UPSC asks who publishes the report and what it measures, so prepare the publishing body and the report's purpose alongside the headline rank.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The 'Frontiers' report, which identifies emerging environmental issues of concern, is published by

  • (a)World Health Organization
  • (b)United Nations Environment Programme
  • (c)World Meteorological Organization
  • (d)United Nations Development Programme

  Answer(b) United Nations Environment Programme — Frontiers is UNEP's annual emerging-issues report; the 2022 edition covered urban noise, wildfires and phenological mismatches.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under India's Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000, the permissible ambient noise limit for a residential area during the day is

  • (a)45 dB(A)
  • (b)50 dB(A)
  • (c)55 dB(A)
  • (d)65 dB(A)

  Answer(c) 55 dB(A) — the residential limit is 55 dB(A) by day and 45 dB(A) by night; 65 dB(A) is the daytime commercial limit and 50 dB(A) the daytime silence-zone limit.