Salim Ali, the distinguished ornithologist, would have been thrilled. The bird carries a profound message. The song of the koel at dawn each day and in the evening, against the backdrop of the ruddy sun setting in the western horizon, emits an eloquent signal to the world that has painfully realised that desecration of Nature can lead to a horrendous catastrophe, perhaps even the one called Covid-19.

The message is as loud as it is clear ~ biodiversity and the environment ought to be at the core of the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, and the opportunity, paradoxically offered by Nature, must not be squandered.

To hear the bird sing with such clarity has provided brief moments of joy ~ both to begin and end the day with ~ and a valuable boost for the mind in the midst of overwhelming gloom and doom that is seemingly interminable.

A striking feature of the irony must be that the silence of the lockdown, notably the grounding of flights in the city’s peripheral areas, has made the chirping still more resonant even in normally bustling cities where ~ normally once more ~ the noise and environmental pollution had a few months ago soared to peaks. At another remove, wild life is just as threatened as it was before the pandemic.

What has changed perhaps are the patterns of human behaviour and the focus of attention. This moment will be a fleeting one: birds may never be as audible again. As lockdown begins to ease, traffic will gradually pick up. Amidst the roar and mindless honking of vehicles, almost 24 X 7 in metropolises, birdsong will be blotted out once more just as air quality will deteriorate.

Both are ugly manifestations of a degraded environment. On closer reflection, it doesn’t have to be so. There is an invisible thread ~ much like the invisible enemy ~ that connects the song of the bird, the quality of the air, and the pandemic. Poor air quality kills an estimated 7 million people worldwide every year, and early indications suggest that those suffering from respiratory problems exacerbated by air pollution may be more at risk from Covid-19.

As the lockdown ends, our attention to the birdsong should remain firmly fixed, and not fade into memory. Let the song of the koel act as a reminder that there is a golden opportunity to put environmental sustainability and climate action firmly at the core of the huge interventions required to help the world recover from the pandemic.

Let us not be impervious to the opportunity afforded by the song of the koel ~ twice each day. There is far greater clarity in the birdsong than in the presentations of the ruling class, when it takes to the airwaves.