Cleaner air created ‘vacuum’ for cyclone

IT’S GONE three months now and Covid-19 continues to dominate our lives. Every news bulletin and newspaper article is only about it. I am so sick of it.

But no matter how we try to wish it away the reality is that it is there and could change our lives, if not forever, at least for a very long time to come.

And while the world grapples with this pandemic, along comes a monster cyclone, Amphan. Packing winds up to 190km/h, the super cyclone smashes into some of the poorest regions in the world, the coastal areas of north-east India and Bangladesh, ripping off roofs, toppling trees and flooding towns and villages. It’s a double blow for the poor, fighting Covid-19 amid the devastation of a monster cyclone.

Meteorologists and scientists have come up with a surprise cause of the super cyclone. While the Indian subcontinent is a monsoonprone region, their theory is that the lockdown could be responsible for such a destructive storm. With almost all human activity at a standstill under the lockdown laws imposed by the Modi government, smog and pollution had cleared up so much across one of the most polluted regions in the world that for the first time the Himalayan peaks became visible from many miles away. When the heavy smog and pollution had lifted, a lowpressure system developed, causing the cyclone to rush in from the sea to fill the vacuum.

In a strange twist, clean air could have caused the deadly cyclone.

| THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN Kloof