Visual Pollution

There is no specific definition as to the concept of ‘visual pollution’; however, it may be understood as an irregular formation of something that disturbs the visual aspects of people. The web of entangled cables across streets, advertisement billboards on the roads, openly dumped garbage, uneven buildings hanging over streets, foot path encroaching commercial shops, etc. are examples for visual pollution. This is very a common phenomenon in most of the towns, cities and metropolitans in India. The outward form of a human habitation is in fact a reflexive mirror of strengths and weakness in a given society, comprising of community, culture, tradition, law and legal system. The visual pollution may pose serious mental and physical health hazardous to people. For instance, the distracting billboards on the highways are primary reason for most of the road accidents. In the United States of America, the Federal Highway Beautification Act of 1965 and the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 deals with the problem of visual pollution to certain extent. Similarly, the Clean City Law of 2006 (Cidade Limpa) of Brazil prevents the use of all outdoor advertisements to regulate visual pollution. However, when India would recognize the concept of visual pollution as a serious problem requiring legal regulation is still a questionable fact.

Author:
Dr. Ramdhass Perumal, Assistant Professor of Law, Unitedworld School of Law (UWSL)

Disclaimer: The opinions / views expressed in this article are solely of the author in his / her individual capacity. They do not purport to reflect the opinions and/or views of the College and/or University or its members.