Gangotri peaks of Himalayas visible from 200km away as air quality improves in north India

The drastic improvement in air quality in large parts of northern India due to the ongoing lockdown induced by the Covid-19 outbreak has produced a clear view of the majestic snow-capped Gangotri peaks of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand, even from a distance of about 200 kilometres.  

Residents of Saharanpur town in Uttar Pradesh state got the view of the Himalayan peaks nearly a month after residents of Jalandhar city in Punjab state enjoyed a similar view of the Dhauladhar range earlier in April, reports our New Delhi correspondent.  

"It was truly a rare sight. People in Saharanpur have not had such a clear view of the snow-capped peaks in the past decade," said Saharanpur Divisional Commissioner Sanjay Kumar.

Ramesh Pandey, an officer of the Indian Forest Services, shared photos of the peaks of Gangotri on Twitter.

"Snow-capped peaks of Himalayas are now visible from Saharnpur! Lockdown and intermittent rains have significantly improved the AQI. These pictures were taken by Dushyant, an Income Tax inspector, from his house at Vasant Vihar colony on Monday," Pandey tweeted while sharing the pictures.

Parveen Kaswan, another forest officer, also shared a picture of the sight and wrote, "When you can see snow peaks from Saharanpur. They say it is rare to see these peaks which are 150-200 km away. I hope now people will appreciate what they were missing earlier."

The air quality index in northern India, which is generally quite bad, has dipped below 50 following the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19 outbreak.