COVID-19 impact: Delhi’s Yamuna River undergoes makeover, looks cleaner during lockdown

For years, many social activists, environmentalists and the government authorities have been trying to clean up Yamuna River, but with little success. However, the ongoing lockdown in India to battle the outbreak of Coronavirus has turned out to be a boon for the polluted environment. Lately, the pictures of Dhauladhar Mountain range as witnessed by the residents of Jalandhar city in Punjab went viral on the internet. Now, it is Delhi’s turn to take delight in the latest pictures of Yamuna River and how!
News has it that in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, the level of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) sunk to 2.1 due to which the water of the rivers is looking clean and brighter.

This is Yamuna River from Kalindi Kunj. In short: we're such a burden on this planet. @abhinavmathur thanks for sharing these. pic.twitter.com/CWbG0wETp7

— Dr Ritesh Malik (@drriteshmalik) April 3, 2020

Reportedly, Dr. PK Mishra, Professor at Chemical Engineering and Technology, IIT-BHU, said that the quality of Ganga River water has seen a marked improvement of about 40 to 50 percent since March 24. Needless to say, industrial pollutants, that have been a major factor in polluting the river, are not being discarded into the water body these days due to the temporary closure of chemical industries.
Meanwhile, Delhi and NCR’s air has become so much clean that people can behold stars at night due to the clean atmosphere. The current AQI (Air Quality Index) in Delhi is 60 for now, which is a remarkable achievement for the city that sees an AQI of about 600 in smoggy winter months.