Indian cities are renowned for their wild and exuberant variety of sounds: honking horns, bellowing loudspeakers, raucous holiday parades, and, much much more.  Now, urban areas are beginning to try to rein in the noise-making, at least at night.  A nationwide decree deems 10am to 6am as a time for quiet, during which restrictions have been imposed on the use of horns, sound-emitting construction equipments and bursting of firecrackers,” the federal environment ministry said.

Indian officials also announced noise-monitoring stations in major cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, by September.  Eighteen more cities will join the system by 2011, the ministry said. “With the new system in place, a systematic national level monitoring and reporting network in the country will be available, as in case of air and water pollution.”

For more, see this CNN report.