Indian lockdown in 2020 prevented 27 MT of Himalayan snowmelt

As many as 27 metric tonnes of ice and snow melt in the Himalayas had been prevented by the Indian national lockdown, in place from March 25, 2020, to May 31, 2020, according to a new study.

Diminished anthropogenic pollutant emissions during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns reduced snowmelt in the Himalayas, the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Nexus said.

Liqiang Zhang from Beijing Normal University, China, and colleagues explored how the sudden, dramatic reduction in particulate pollution in the region affected snow and ice melt, using multiple satellite data as well as a coupled atmosphere-chemistry-snow model.