Abstract
Increasing urban development has caused light pollution to be a growing concern in India. It affects the health of humans, flora and fauna. The skyglow phenomenon actively hinders astronomical pursuits. However this issue is not well known, and the Indian Judiciary has started to take cognizance of it.
This paper examines regulations relating to artificial light safety and examines recent developments in the administrative and judicial system that relate to light pollution. It also examines international standards for the measurement of darkness. It makes reference to developments in regulation in response to light pollution in foreign jurisdiction and recommends suggestions based on insights drawn from such research.
Keywords
Light Pollution, ALAN, Dark Sky Places, Indian Law, NGT, Nuisance, Legislation
Introduction
With urban expansion across the globe, there has been an increase in light along with it, in the form of streetlights, billboards, indoor lighting that spills out windows, etc; this is because as humans we hold an association between light and safety. However, light is not always good- particularly bright lights during night are unnatural and can have many detrimental effects both on human health by causing disruption of the circadian clock, which might be responsible for a whole host of health issues. ‘Glare’ is also responsible for causing visual problems, but this is mostly through the screens of phones and laptops.
Excessive light also has detrimental effects on other fauna, in particular nocturnal animals and migratory birds; even plants have been shown to be affected. In a case particular to India, flamingoes in Navi Mumbai were found to have been disoriented due to LED lights put up nearby, which eventually resulted in their death.
The cause of such detrimental effects is known as photo-pollution, or light pollution. Light pollution, according to an article in the Journal of Urban Management, is the “excessive, enormous, and unnecessary use of artificial light in the form of outdoor lighting sources that has adverse effects on the environment, lifestyle, wildlife, astronomy, etc.”
The website of DarkSky International, a US non-profit organization, simply defines light pollution as “Light pollution is the human-made alteration of outdoor light levels from those occurring naturally.” In short, any sort of unnecessary man-made brightness that brings harm to people’s health, disrupts the habits and natural behaviours of animals, and reduces the opportunities for astronomy due to phenomena such as skyglow can be considered as light pollution.
There is a clear need to treat light pollution as the threat to health that it is. A 2023 article compiled and analysed the results of various studies on the effect of light pollution on human health; the findings linked Artificial Light At Night (hereinafter referred to as ALAN) to cancer, metabolic disorders, mental and neurological disorders and sleep disorders. Light pollution was specifically found to have a high correlation with breast cancer risk, though the paper stated that “their causal relationship remained somewhat uncertain due to the discrepancy among studies.” Even Dim Light At Night(dLAN), was shown to have detrimental effects on sleep and neurological health in animals, though in most such cases, the animals in question were nocturnal.
Light pollution is likely to be a huge problem for India going forward. According to the World Bank, around 37% of the Indian population is situated in cities and this number is only projected to increase, what this means is that a significant percentage of the population live in conditions that are actively detrimental to their health. The Supreme Court held that the “right to health is an[sic] integral to right to life” under Article 21 and as such steps should be taken by policy makers to combat light pollution.
Research Methodology
This paper takes a doctrinal approach to regulations. Since, in the Indian context, there is an absence of regulation that specifically addressed the problem of light pollution, mandatory safety regulation and standards around product standards affecting luminaries- i.e lighting devices, have been included in the review. Applications brought forward in front of the tribunals and court have also been studied to highlight the increasing awareness of the judiciary regarding this issue.
A review has also been conducted of research papers concerning light pollution regulations abroad that study such laws in terms of application and effectiveness. Papers that explore the health implications of light pollution have also been reviewed.
This paper focuses mostly on the effects of light pollution on the health of people living in urban areas and possible laws and legal remedies to combat such issues, though it also points to the measures taken to preserve isolated areas that still have pristine night skies. The detrimental effects on wildlife have also been included.
Literature Review
Current Regulation- Indian Standards
In India, there are some rules on the design of lights that may be sold and produced in the country. Certification of ‘luminaires’ i.e. lighting devices is regulated by the Bureau of Indian Standards (hereinafter BIS) which was established under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016. While certification of products under this Act is generally voluntary, the Compulsory Registration Scheme (hereinafter CRS) operating under the BIS Regulations requires that certain products require a license to use a Standard Mark or certificate of conformity. The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), issued an order under the CRS that specified certain products were required to be registered by the BIS, one current example of such being fixed general-purpose LED luminaires. As such production, distribution or import of certain products, which include some categories of luminaires, in the territory of India without certification is prohibited and such uncertified products must be recalled. This is meant to prevent the distribution of devices that may input a hazardous amount or intensity of light. Stricter enforcement of this scheme and expanding the ambit of this scheme to include other types of lighting devices might be the way forward, but it can only regulate things at the distribution stage.
However, the current guidelines to meet the Indian Standards for lighting devices in India are laid down in the National Lighting Code, 2010 (hereinafter NLC 2010), as last reaffirmed in 2016. These sets of guidelines are aimed at industry professionals to help them conform to regulations applicable to luminaires and they do state that they take light pollution into account when considering the design and placement of luminaires.The NLC 2010 clarifies that “The intent of this code is to encourage good lighting practices and systems which would minimize light pollution, glare, light tresspass[sic] and conserve energy while maintaining safety, security, utility and productivity.” This shows that the people in charge of designing this code, which consisted of the Society of Lighting Engineers, various public agencies that provided public services and industry professionals among others, had been well aware of light pollution for a long time and had set down guidelines for the same.
Aside from this, the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 lay down the limits for lights, reflectors and indicators in vehicles, specifying positioning, brightness limit and other specifications, primarily with the aim of reducing motor accidents due to reduced visibility.
Case Law
The above frameworks deal with the regulation of lighting devices from a strictly safety perspective and aside from NLC, 2010 they make no mention of light pollution.
Indeed, the Central Pollution Control Board (hereinafter CPCB) admitted that “There is no statutory framework in India that regulates light pollution” with regards to a 2024 application, where the Panchtatva Foundation brought their complaint before the National Green Tribunal (hereinafter NGT) and shed a spotlight on the issue of light pollution. The application cited various studies conducted that brought forth the detrimental effects of ALAN on both humans and animals. Notable in this case was the fact that the CPCB stated that their purview consisted of air and water pollution and did not explicitly include ‘light pollution’. They stated this after taking into account various sections of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act,1981 and of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 that define the various kinds of pollution relevant to those acts. They pointed to the CRS under the BIS for existing regulations that dealt with artificial light.
Earlier, in a case addressing the ecological damage caused to Fatehsagar Lake, the NGT had directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology to “to take up requisite study on the issue of ‘light pollution’ and take appropriate action to regulate such pollution in the context of Indian conditions…”. Such a study would pave the way for the administration to take action regarding light pollution.
Later in the case of a PIL filed by Rohit Joshi before Bombay High Court in 2024, the applicant pointed out the harm done to trees due to the putting up of lights as decorations for festivals. It was alleged that light pollution was one of the sources of such harm, though the court did not follow up on this line of reasoning. The court did, however, direct local authorities to bring down those lights.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal corporation has taken steps to curb light pollution, such as in the case of the complaint filed by Nilesh Desai against Wilson Gymkhana, for use of excessive floodlights. While the floodlights were eventually taken down, this was not because they were causing light pollution but because the gym had not obtained permission to put them up. The petitioner in the case also “submitted a 60 page document to the environment ministry”; this document was “one of the first recommendations in India to adopt a policy to address light pollution.”
Since “there are no particular laws governing light pollution”, the only recourse one has under the law in India against an individual causing light pollution is to file a suit under tort law as a nuisance, since it can be claimed that ‘excessive’ light may interfere with a person’s enjoyment of their land by interrupting their rest and causing disruption to the surroundings. Tort law in the modern scenario is a resort for when there is no more specific legislation addressing some subject matter and as such affords some flexibility to the law.
Soft Law
Soft law involves providing an incentive to parties to follow a certain course of action in place of mandating them to do so, thus the guidelines provided under the NLC 2010 for luminaires that are not part of the CRS might be counted as a sort of soft law, encouraging manufacturers to design products that do not spread light pollution.
Another form of soft law is based on international standards and agreements. DarkSky International, previously known as the International Dark Sky Association, is a US based non-profit organization aimed at maintaining and protecting pristine dark skies for the betterment of astronomy. It has designated certain areas as Dark Sky Places. These include isolated areas or wilderness with low to little lighting that allow for the observation of the night sky, or urban areas that have introduced effective light pollution reduction measures. Such areas are used as sites for ‘astro tourism’, tourism used to conduct astronomy and stargazing practices. While there is no statutory framework for the curbing of light pollution, there have been at least two Dark Sky Zones established in India. The first is India’s first Dark Sky Park, Pench Tiger Reserve lying across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, designated as such in 2024. Earlier, in 2022, the first Dark Sky Reserve in India was the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) established in Hanle, Ladakh.
Wildlife sanctuaries, nature reserves and other such protected areas are good candidates for the establishment of future Dark Sky Places because the establishment of such zones is likely to benefit nocturnal animals such as bats and many categories of insects, and they might bring in an additional source of funding via astro tourism, as is the case with Pench Tiger Reserve, which introduced an astrotourism tour. There are also zones that, while not explicitly classified as Dark Sky Places, have lower light pollution and thus provide opportunities for astronomy and stargazing. Such places include Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh, the astroport in Sariska, Rajasthan and famously, Rann of Kutch.
The current focus on creating low light pollution zones in India so far generally focuses on isolated deserts or preserved forests that do not have human encroachment. There is no focus on making low light pollution zones in cities. Local governments need to be incentivized to implement effective measures to reduce light pollution in their communities.
Global Scenario
Few jurisdictions across the globe have started implementing laws to tackle light pollution. A comparative study in the Laws journal did extensive research on various jurisdictions across the globe in regions that had a high density of light pollution and had adopted laws regarding the same. This study was restricted to English-speaking jurisdictions, specifically the cities of Shanghai, Hong Kong, London and Valletta. The study found that common law jurisdictions went for softer approaches of “integrating light pollution controls within broader environmental protection laws.” Notably, London takes the approach of treating artificial light as a nuisance, which is closest to the current approach taken in India.This is in contrast to other approaches which take a metric based approach taking into account factors like the intensity, upward light ratio and color temperature of lights. A metric based approach is a preventive measure that offers ‘proactive control’ of light pollution, but it is a rigid approach and may not be applicable to India which has unequal levels of development across the board, as an illustration: a light pollution regulation targeting a metropolitan city like Mumbai will not be effective in rural environments.
Method
This paper takes a qualitative approach to research, conducting an examination of a record of applications that have explored the issue of light pollution in the Indian judicial system and
following the thread of lighting safety regulations in India. Furthermore, research involving light pollution regulations from across the globe has also been analyzed in order to come up with suggestions for future guidelines to tackle the problem of light pollution in India.
Suggestions
We can see that the focus on combating light pollution in India has generally been in regards with protecting pristine night sky in wilderness or isolated areas for scientific purposes. Such zones have been established with the help of astronomical organizations as astronomers have an interest in reducing skyglow so that the stars remain visible. Wildlife protection organisations also participate in initiatives for curbing light pollution. However, there is a dire need to bring good lighting practices to urban areas. People living in cities are affected by the brightness constantly throughout their nights, in addition to the air pollution and noise pollution produced in urban areas.
Some of the questions to consider are whether the government should take a hard law approach and lay down strict regulations or take softer approaches and incentivise producers and users to voluntarily take up measures to reduce light pollution. Other countries have instituted curfews, but it is unlikely this approach will be received well in India. How far should users and manufacturers be held liable for causing light pollution and if there should be further developments under nuisance law to specifically account for light pollution.
After consideration of the above matters, some suggestions have been provided below. These suggestions have been divided into three areas:
Suggestions for implementing good lighting practices in cities:
- Making sure there is less wastage of energy powering lights, which also helps in combating global warming. LED lights which are preferred due to their energy efficiency actually increase light pollution due to their excessive brightness. To combat this, measures such as capping output, use of warmer colored lights such as amber LEDs and shielding can be implemented.
- The color temperature of lights should be accounted for. Warmer wavelengths of light are preferable in public areas at night and cooler colour lights should be avoided.
- A cap on the luminous power of light emitted by vehicles has been introduced under CMVR at 3000 lumens, but these rules are strictly for visibility purposes. A limit instituted for the purposes of curbing light pollution would be lower, for e.g. in the case of the US scenario where some states have regulation curbing light pollution, in most US State Acts, the cap is usually at 1800 lumens.
- Regulation for construction of exterior light fixtures should ensure that such lights are shielded, that is, constructed in such a way that the light disperses downwards. This is to reduce the skyglow that is caused by upward scattered light.
- Another thing to keep in mind is that air pollution can exacerbate light pollution due to the presence of particulars in the air causing diffusion of light, skyglow is known to get worse due to dust or fog. Improving air quality in cities goes hand in hand with decreasing light pollution.
- Incentives offered on a district level to encourage cities to bring down their level of light pollution.
Suggestions for mechanisms to address harm caused due to artificial light:
- There should be a mechanism to levy some form of penalty on individuals who put up bright lights in residential zones or near hospitals
- There should be some sort of penalty levied in case bright lights are installed near protected areas established under the Wildlife (Protection Act), 1972 and Buffer Zones around such areas need to be kept clear of linear intrusions and measures should be put in place for the same.
Suggestions for protection of zones with pristine night skies:
- Currently, Dark Sky Zones and areas that otherwise maintain pristine night skies are maintained by a variety of organizations and interests, and are usually maintained by astronomy interest groups and wildlife protection organizations. There is no express set of domestic standards for designation of areas which have pristine night skies and no regulations with the aim of establishment and maintenance of such zones for the purpose of maintaining low light pollution areas and promoting astro tourism.
Conclusion
While light pollution may not be proven to have an effect in increasing global warming as other types of pollution are, that is no reason to neglect this critical gap in urban policy. Light pollution is detrimental to wildlife and is clearly an important health concern; the maintenance of a regular day-night cycle is crucial for the regular functioning of the body. Since noise pollution is also a type of pollution that is a major source of nuisance and does not have any explicit relation to climate change, noise pollution regulations might provide a good analogue for what future light pollution laws, if any are instituted, may look like.
It can be seen there are three specific areas for which laws might be needed, firstly, regulations to curb light pollution in cities; secondly a mechanism to address the harm caused to people and wildlife due to irresponsible installation of light fixtures and thirdly, legal acknowledgement of zones which have pristine skies and protections granted to said zones for the purposes of wildlife protection and furthering of science. The first two areas in particular should be given priority as they involve the health and well being of human beings.
India is lagging behind in legislation for the curbing of light pollution. It might be tempting to suggest that light pollution is an inevitable and unavoidable consequence of India’s high pollution density and increasing urban development but it is precisely because of those factors that there is a need to catch-up and get ahead of this issue. A central or top-down approach may not be ideal and it may be better for such rules to be formulated and enforced at the district level.