BLINDING GLOW

The science is clear: increased illumination has damaging consequences for the health of humans, animals and plants. It’s time governments introduced policies to protect the natural darkness and improved the quality of outdoor lighting.

- BHAGIRATH

THE HIGH Court of Bombay is hearing a rather unusual case these days. On March 7, Rohit Manohar Joshi, a social activist in Mumbai, moved the court, seeking removal of decorative lights from tree trunks and branches in the city. While such decorations are supposed to be temporary, “trees in Mumbai’s Malabar Hills, Breach Candy, Walkeshwar and Andheri areas have been draped with lights for several months. Similarly, such lighting can be seen in various areas of Thane and Mira Bhayander,” Joshi said in the petition. Last year, a similar plea had reached the office of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Environmentalists Jyoti Nadkarni and B N Kumar wrote an email to the chief minister, opposing the municipal corporation’s plan to beautify the 400-year old Vadale lake at Panvel in Raigad district by illuminating its 1,300-metre shore with colourful leds (light-emitting diodes), artificially lit benches, animal figurines, street motifs and a 5-metre-tall parachute. Subsequently, the municipal corporation replaced the bright leds with dim lighting inside the boundary wall of the lake.

The opposition to decorative lights and floodlights may appear bizarre to some at a time when abundant luminosity is synonymous with economic progress and development. Since Humphry Davy, a British chemist, invented the first electric light 200 years ago, paving the path for development of light bulbs, artificial lighting has revolutionised the way we live, work, socialise and run business. Arguably, light bulb is one of the most transformative inventions in human history; it has propelled us into the modern era, shaping various industries, infrastructure and scientific advancement. In a world where hundreds of millions of people still live in the dark—as per