Lockdown and the Environment

Lockdown and its impact on the Environment

The lockdown, announced by the government of India from March 23, 2020 to April 14, 2020 to control the corona virus pandemic, might in all probability be extended for another 14 days or until May 01, 2020.

While the situation comes as a boon to some, it is also a time of extreme difficulty for those responsible for ensuring the lockdown, for the migrants and the under-privileged. The police are overworked and often work without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). The healthcare personnel are working under tremendous pressure, handling people in quarantine and infected patients in special Covid-19 hospitals, at great risk to their lives. We owe them our gratitude, these peace-time warriors who work while we are at home. We must do our duty in reducing the spread of virus by staying at home. And be sure to financially contribute to funds which help them carry out their duties, their service to mankind.

Impact on the environment 

As Greta Thunberg has said with regard to climate change and environment degradation, “It is not about me”, this situation is not about us as individuals, but about the society at large, maybe the entire humankind.

When we consider it from the viewpoint of an environmentalist, it is extremely positive; blue skies, reduction in particulate pollution and green-house gases, clean water and an opportunity for the wildlife to reclaim their space, which we have wrongly seized and occupied.

But there is always a worry that once things are back to normal, humans will revert to their old habits and cause rapid increase in all the above parameters. It would appear that humans are a victim of their own arrogance for steadfastly refusing to learn from past mistakes.

Viruses that made the leap

H1N1 virus with its origin in pigs, HIV from chimpanzees, ebola from bats, bird flu from aquatic birds are few of the viruses that made the leap from animals to humans. Humans don’t seem to understand that it not ethical to consume other species as food when plenty of other sources of food are available. It does not matter that chicken and lamb are domesticated for generations and humans are immune to any diseases present in them. After all, these have evolved from wild species and can act as hosts to innumerable deadly viruses which can make the leap to humans.

This is something which must stop at once. We must put an immediate end to the trade in wildlife meat and also cut back on industrially grown chicken and beef. When one considers the feed conversion ratio, ie., the amount of feed required to increase the animal’s weight by a kilogram, an added advantage will be the drastic decrease in plant resources, reducing the strain of the environment.

Note: feed conversion ration is 7 for cattle, 3 for pork and 1.9 for chicken.

Ultimately, only time will be witness to what the future holds for humankind.

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Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money - old Indian saying