Let There Be Blue Sky

The nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has unwittingly given us a glimpse of what our cities can look like if we wean away from polluting vehicles and industries. Let’s make this an everlasting reality

- Anumita Roychowdhury

The reactions were bewildering. During the 70 days of nationwide lockdown, when people were forced to stay indoors, business shutdowns froze the economy, raising the spectre of job losses and pay cuts, and yet the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continued to tighten its grip over India, many places across the country revelled in clear, blue skies and clean air. With a lot less traffic on road and closure of factories and industries, suspended particles thinned out from the air within a few days of the lockdown. People were able to see the moon, the stars and sharp contours of trees, hills and monuments without the usual barrier of smog, and breath easier. Places like Delhi and exurbs, where people had become accustomed to intermittent closure of industry, construction cites, suspension of schools and the use of N95 masks to battle winter pollution even before COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, witnessed history. The lockdown, imposed in phases from March 23, did not help much to flatten the COVID-19 infection curve, but it did bend the pollution curve. And there is hard evidence for this change.