Nuisance is a broad legal concept including anything that disturbs the reasonable use of your property or endangers life and health or is offensive. This term emerged in the late nineteenth century to refer to any environmental problem, for example, odor nuisance, garbage nuisance. It is a common law tort. It is one of the oldest causes of action known to the common law, with cases framed in nuisance going back almost to the beginning of recorded case decisions.

“Nuisance” includes any act, omission, place or thing which causes or is likely to cause injury, danger, annoyance or offence to the sense of sight, smell or hearing, or which is or may be dangerous to life or injurious to health or property. [Section 2(29), the Paurashava Ordnance, 1977; Section 2(28), the Dhaka Municipal Corporation Ordinance, 1983; the Cantonments Act, 1924]

A person is guilty of public nuisance who does an act or is guilty of an illegal omission which causes any common injury, danger or annoyance to the public or to the or to the people in general who dwell or occupy property in the vicinity, or which must necessarily cause injury, obstruction, danger or annoyance to persons who may have occasion to use any public right. [Section 268 of the Penal Code, 1860]

The term ‘nuisance’ has not been given any specific definition in the statute. Follow­ing the accepted judicial pronouncements it may be described as an unlawful interference with a person's use or enjoyment of land/building or some right over it or in con­nection with it. There are two kinds of nuisances-public and private. A public nuisance is one which affects the public generally as an annoyance while a private nuisance is one which injures a private person which the law regards as in excess of the annoyance suffered by the pub­lic at large. To constitute of a private nuisance it is enough to show that there is a material interference with the physical comfort of hu­man existence according to plain, sober and simple notions among the common people. [Wahid Mia alias Abdul Wahid Bhuiyan Vs. Dr. Rafiqul Islam and others, 16BLD (HCD)255]