It is clear that the lockdown of humans is helping nature and biodiversity rediscover their natural spaces. With the lockdown, nothing is happening, it is dead quiet everywhere. The animals, be they fin whales or other marine species or the terrestrial animals, are clearly rediscovering their confidence and peace, allowing them to take over the streets and return to their habitat. And it's not just the animals, it's the flora and fauna also that is blooming afresh. Like, a part of wetland in Navi Mumbai has turned pink, scientists believe it's due to an explosive blooming of red algae that thrives in saline water. This has never happened because as the summer picks up the Mumbai wetland loses its water. So is the case with Ganges River, the water is getting cleaner and with no human intervention, a freshwater breed of endangered dolphins have been spotted in the Ganges near Meerut. Another such incident of the Olive Ridley turtles, one of the most endangered species, have come back to nest at the shores of Odisha. The Malabar civet yet another critically endangered species, which was last spotted in the 1990s, was seen lurking around on the streets of Kerala. The Yamuna is looking cleaner these days. In New Delhi due to the lockdown of industries the water of River Yamuna has become clean, as there are no industrial pollutants or wastes.
cientists believe it's due to an explosive blooming of red algae that thrives in saline water. This has never happened because as the summer picks up the Mumbai wetland loses its water. So is the case with Ganges River, the water is getting cleaner and with no human intervention, a freshwater breed of endangered dolphins have been spotted in the Ganges near Meerut. Another such incident of the Olive Ridley turtles, one of the most endangered species, have come back to nest at the shores of Odisha. The Malabar civet yet another critically endangered species, which was last spotted in the 1990s, was seen lurking around on the streets of Kerala. The Yamuna is looking cleaner these days. In New Delhi due to the lockdown of industries the water of River Yamuna has become clean, as there are no industrial pollutants or wastes.
There were several spotting of animals roaming free on the streets as well, like a Nilgai or the Blue Bull spotted in Noida, Sambar deer in Chandigarh, peacocks strutting about through backyards, spreading their glorious feathers are all being attributed to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Our scarlet sunsets have not escaped us, as we wake up to the sing-song of bird calls in our tired neighbourhoods. The air is so clean that in certain after a span of almost 30 years that people of northern India could see the Dhauladhar Mountain range from miles away. Not far away, from the dusty mofussil of Saharanpur, peaks of Bandarpunch and Gangotri in the inner Himalayas were visible after generations.
Whilst the lockdown has forced us to spend time at home, we have seen heroic social media posts on cooking valour, what used to happen years ago is happening again with people spending time together, everyone feasts their eyes on the extraordinary stories of The Mahabharata and The Ramayana.
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