India’s diesel consumption in April fell 10% and petrol 4% from the same month of 2019, the pre-pandemic year with ‘normal’ offtake, as a virulent second wave of Covid-19 infections hammers the world’s third-largest oil consumer. A comparison with April 2020 is redundant as the nationwide lockdown, the world’s harshest, had erased 70% of demand. But a month-on-month comparison of data shows April diesel sales down nearly 2% from March, when consumption had jumped 10% from February to 95% of the pre-pandemic level.