New Delhi: India like other countries
world over is falling prey to one of the lesser known, but
equally grave, type of pollution caused by none other than
light!
The first to notice the problem were astronomers whose
task of observing stars and planets became more difficult in
the backdrop of an over illuminated sky and they began
shifting their observatories to places further and further
away from urban areas.
"When the first observational facilities of the 20th
century were coming up in India they were being shifted far
away from cities. The observatory in Hyderabad shifted to
Rangapur, and the Indian Institute of astrophysics set up
an observatory at Hanle, in the Himalayas," N Ratnashree,
Director, Nehru Planetarium told.
"The Uttar Pradesh State Observatory - shifted its
location from Varanasi and set up an observatory at Nainital
but the location became so polluted with light that the new
telescope of this observatory, which is the largest in India,
is now being built far away at Devsthal," she says.
Now, a pair of Berlin-based filmmakers have revealed
in a new film the adverse effect of artificial light emissions
during night also called "sky glow" on not just astronomers
but insects and migratory birds as well as turtles which are
killed by light which alters the natural framework of their
lives and disturbs their sense of direction.
Bureau Report
