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		</div><p>India’s extended lockdown to curb the coronavirus outbreak has shut down schools, workplaces, industries, transport, and forced people to stay home.</p>
<p>It also led to an unexpected bonus in the country with six out of 10 of the world’s most polluted cities: cleaner air.</p>
<p>India accounts for the highest pollution-related deaths in the world with more than two million people every year, according to a December 2019 report by the Global Alliance of Health and Pollution.</p>
<p>On March 25, the first day of the lockdown, the average PM 2.5 levels decreased by 22% and nitrogen dioxide — which comes from burning fossil fuels — dropped by 15%, according to air pollution data analysed by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.</p>
<p><em>“These are extraordinary times,”</em> said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the Centre for Science and Environment, a research and advocacy organisation in New Delhi.</p>
<p>She attributed the drop in air pollutants to fewer vehicles on the road, less construction activity, and factories shutting down.</p>
<p><em>“People are more vulnerable during a pandemic in areas with high pollution,”</em> she said. <em>“Our lungs and hearts are already compromised, and we cannot fight the virus.”</em></p>
<p>India has reported nearly 20,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and over 600 deaths.</p>
<p>The stringent lockdown measures that are set to be lifted on May 3 also have had an effect on India’s rivers.</p>
<p>Pictures of pristine clear waters of the Ganges, India’s longest river considered holy by Hindus, were enthusiastically shared on social media a few weeks into the lockdown.</p>
<p>India’s pollution monitoring body said the water had even become fit for bathing in some areas, according to real-time monitors placed along the 1,600-mile-long river.</p>
<p>A recent analysis by the Delhi Pollution Control Board found that the quality of the Yamuna River flowing along New Delhi has also improved during the lockdown.</p>
<p>The report cited a decrease in runoffs from 28 industrial clusters and less rubbish.</p>
<p><em>“The lockdown has clearly told us what the main sources of pollution are,”</em> said Vimlendu Jha, an environmentalist and founder of Swechha, a non-governmental organisation helping youth fight climate change.</p>
<p><em>“Effluents are forced into our river bodies, and that is major reason why our rivers are black.”</em></p>
<p>Mr Jha and other experts warn that the environmental improvements may be short-lived as the government eventually lifts the lockdown and rampant economic activity resumes.</p>
<p><em>“How was a lockdown for just a few weeks able to achieve what governments could not for decades?”</em> said Mr Jha, who believes authorities should study data collected during the lockdown to devise better environmental policies.</p>
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