In the dark about light pollution

Beset as we are with many kinds of pollution, we barely pay attention to light pollution and ignore the risks it poses

- SANDIP ROY

There's too much light at a time when our body clock tells us it should be dark.

(ISTOCKPHOTO)

When my father died over two decades ago, my mother told my little niece that her Dad-ubhai or grandfather had become a star.

Beset as we are with many kinds of pollution, we hardly pay any attention to light pollution. It does not smell. It does not choke our lungs or our water bodies. It does not deafen us. It hides in plain sight. Even I didn't think too much of it until recently.

At the end of August I went on a night tour of illuminated buildings in Kolkata. The Kolkata Illumination Project by a citizens group called Kolkata Restorers has been lighting up old heritage buildings for almost two years—massive colonial buildings that house insurance companies and banks, an old market, synagogues and churches, a Radha Jiu temple and more. By day the buildings look imposing enough but the low wattage warm yellow LED lights make them come alive at night. They looked mysterious and beautiful.

A few weeks later, in the run-up to Durga Puja, I saw giant billboards, which later proved to be LED screens, that popped up in a park near my house. I felt I was surrounded by a battery of television screens flashing advertisements for leggings, kurtis and cooking oil, the shocking pinks, reds, yellows and neons screaming for attention. They looked garish and hideous.

The World Atlas of Night Sky Brightness, generated on the basis of thousands of satellite photos, shows the planet lit up like a Christmas tree. Admittedly it looks pretty. Come Diwali, we all get WhatsApp forwards with images showing the map of India lit up for Diwali purportedly seen from a satellite. They are AI-generated but will be nevertheless forwarded from group to group with Happy Diwali messages. The image, even if fake, glows with 1,000-watt pride.