Clean Yamuna, Clear Skies: Coronavirus Lockdown Gives Fresh Lease Of Life To Environment

As the nation enters the 11th day of its lockdown, the air and water quality have significantly improved. While earlier this week, there were reports of the Dhauladhar range being visible from Jalandhar, there are now reports of improvement in air and water quality of the Yamuna river.

In the Ganga-Yamuna, the level of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) came down to 2.1. Given the decreasing BOD, the water in the rivers is now appearing clean.

Additionally, as per Dr PK Mishra, Professor at Chemical Engineering and Technology, IIT-BHU, the quality of Ganga river water has witnessed a significant improvement of around '40 to 50 per cent' since 24 March.

Since the last few days, the residents of NCR have been blessed with a blue sky which is otherwise hardly seen during the normal routine. The current AQI (Air Quality Index) in Delhi is in the range of 60 while it goes as high as 600 during the smog season in December.