Lockdown Impact: Yamuna Sparkling Blue As Industries Remain Shut

New Delhi: After nearly 2 weeks of industrial shut down due to the lockdown, the Yamuna appears to be sparkling clean, blue in colour. The froth from industrial effluents, which constantly marked the river's appearance is not to be seen.

Clearly, there is a lesson here for planners. The shutting down of industries is a pointer to the fact that the purity of the river as seen from the sparkling quality of its appearance, can be maintained, if political will is demonstrated. The problem of industrial pollution and its correlation to the contamination of Yamuna, has been discussed for many years without any tangible action on the ground.

The next major problem which planners need to address with regard to Yamuna is the dumping of sewage into the river through clusters of residential colonies. Over the years, massive residential clusters have sprung up alongside the river and many of them , lacking sewage treatment connections, dump the sewage in the river.

If political and administrative planners get their heads together now, they can draw up an integrated plan to tackle this major crisis, which is entirely man-made in nature.

Nature everywhere seems to have got a much needed break. There have been reports of peacocks coming dancing on to Mumbai roads, and deer sitting on the roads running through forests in AP, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Surely, there is a lesson to be drawn on their habitats and human encroachment, here as well.