Saharanpur: The scenic sight of snow-clad mountains of Himalayas was visible from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur town on Thursday as pollution levels went down in the wake of Covid lockdown. Interestingly, the mountains were seen for the second time in two years after the first lockdown was imposed in the country last year. Locals believe that the continuous rainfall for the past few days helped as photographers spotted the peaks from Saharanpur and pictures went viral on social media. Notably, these mountains are situated hundreds of kilometers away from Uttar Pradesh.

Photos and videos clicked by the locals of the town have gone viral on social media – two of them are doctors while one is a government employee.

“It is a rare sight. We saw the peaks of the greater Himalayas towards the north of Saharanpur after the clouds cleared up following two days of rain. It was a clear sight. Around 30-40 years ago one could see it every day but now because of increased pollution one can rarely see them. All of us amateur photographers were delighted when we saw the peaks,” Vivek Bannerjee, a Saharanpur-based doctor whose photos have been widely shared, said in a statement.

Another doctor who clicked the photo was Dr Bannerjee. He shared the pics on Twitter by Sanjay Kumar, a UP cadre IAS officer passionate about photography.

Dushyant Kumar, a government employee and an amateur photographer from Saharanpur, also clicked photos and told news agency ANI that he clicked pictures of the Himalayas from the town on May 20.

“Around sunset time, the Gangotri, Yamunotri and Banderpunch range of Himalayas were illuminated and were visible clearly. Last year too, this range of mountains was visible from here in April. It was a delight to see the Himalayas from Saharanpur,” Dushyant Kumar told ANI.

IAS officer Sanjay Kumar also shared the photos and said, “What a fabulous view of snow-clad upper Himalayas more than 150kms from Saharanpur city.”

Moreover, other social media users also posted some of the photos and comments on Twitter.

This is the second time that the Himalayas have been spotted from Saharanpur. In 2020, the snow peaks were visible from this town as Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan had shared a picture on Twitter.

Himachal Pradesh on Thursday reported 2,648 new COVID-19 cases and 65 fatalities, pushing the state’s infection tally to 1,72,722 and the death toll to 2,581. A total of 4,257 more patients have recovered from the disease, pushing the tally of recoveries so far to 1,36,663.