India, Aug. 9 -- An HT sound meter registered peaks of 110 decibels at two Kanwar Yatra rest camps in east Delhi as loudspeaker-mounted convoy trucks rolled past. That is roughly as loud as a chainsaw at close range, and more than 30 decibels above every legal ceiling that applies to noise in a residential area.

Even between the passing trucks, ambient noise at both camps - HT took the measurements at multiple occasions on Friday and Saturday - held between 80 and 88 decibels - 25 to 33 decibels above the 55-decibel daytime residential limit set by the Central Pollution Control Board. Because the decibel scale is logarithmic, the 85-decibel readings HT recorded carry roughly a thousand times the sound intensity of that ceiling.

The truc...