The Better India · 6 hours ago

SkyQi: How a Schoolgirl Is Measuring Light Pollution in India

A Class 12 student in Gurugram who celebrates spotting seven stars from her balcony has turned that small joy into a quietly serious act of documentation. Suhani Gupta built SkyQi, a free platform that analyzes smartphone photographs of the night sky, because she wanted to measure a problem most people have never thought to name. "Unlike other forms of pollution, air, water, or even noise, light pollution came on gradually, so we never even knew it was taking over our skies," she says - and that invisibility is precisely what she is working against. Her analysis of NASA satellite data across 50 Indian cities found night-time radiance 70% higher in 2025 than in 2015, with even remote Leh, celebrated for its dark skies, recording a 546% rise. What her project quietly demonstrates is that paying attention - really paying attention - to something as ordinary as the night sky above your own home can become the first act of care.