Monday, 6.30am. Inside the capital's historic Suhrawardy Udyan, silence reigns all around. Only a handful of morning walkers can be seen walking quietly. Entry to the park has been banned for more than three months because of coronavirus infection. People confined at home ask the security guards to let them in, walk quietly and go home.

All of them wear masks, with a kind of unknown fear on their faces. The fear of coronavirus infection and death has come as a curse for people, but it has proved a blessing for nature, the environment and animals and birds.

With no people about, the park is covered in green grass. There are green trees all around, and flowers of many colours have bloomed on them. The call of the cuckoo can be heard. Birds of various species move from branch to branch, and squirrels roam freely here and there. It is a lovely sight.

Visiting this morning, a Jagonews24 correspondent saw squirrels moving fearlessly along the park's footpaths. Several squirrels were running about, sometimes behind trees, sometimes in tree hollows and sometimes burying their faces in the green grass to find food. Birds of various species were also resting, sometimes on branches, sometimes on the water of the lake and sometimes on the walkways.

Such a scene is unimaginable in the park in normal times. With thousands of people walking about and making noise from dawn to dusk, birds are rarely seen in the trees. Even when the trees flower, someone or other usually takes the flowers, slipping past the guards.

Squirrels are rarely seen because of the people. But with almost no one present in the current coronavirus situation, the squirrels roam about happily. So many of those present said that although the coronavirus has taken away a great deal, it has given nature back its true form.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.