On Friday night, the 14,690 feet Matterhorn mountain in the Swiss Alps, located on the border between Switzerland and Italy, was lit up with the Indian flag as a part of an illumination series by renowned artist Gerry Hofstetter. The objective behind lighting up the mountain is to spread hope and awareness regarding the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic.
The breath-taking picture of the Indian Flag was posted on Twitter by Gurleen Kaur, an Indian foreign service officer who serves as the Second Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India to World Trade Organisation (WTO). She wrote, “Switzerland expresses solidarity with India in its fight against Coronavirus. Swiss mountain of Matterhorn lit in tricolour. Friendship from Himalayas to Alps…Thank you”
https://twitter.com/gurleenmalik/status/1251313073920651264?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe perpsective of the Light Artist
Swiss light artist Gerry Hofstetter said, “Light is hope. So if you do a message with light in such a situation as we are in now, you give that hope — especially with this iconic, standalone, pyramid-shaped, incredibly strong mountain. The Matterhorn was here before mankind was.”
He added that it was art that brought people together during epidemics in the past. Earlier, Hofstetter beamed words such as ‘hope’, ‘stay home’ and flags of the US, UK, and Italy onto the mountain. As of April 18, Switzerland has reported 27,078 live cases of Coronavirus and 1,327 deaths.
Coronavirus in India
On April 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had extended the nationwide lockdown in India till May 3, 2020, after the religious congregation attended by the Tablighi Jamaat members saw a sudden spike in the number of the Wuhan Coronavirus cases. The deadly virus has claimed 463 lives and infected 13,835 people in India so far.
As factories stay shut and vehicles stay off the roads amidst coronavirus lockdown, the water quality of the rivers has improved. Ganga is much cleaner in Kanpur and Varanasi and mountain ranges like Dhauladhar in Himachal Pradesh are visible from Jalandhar, Punjab.