While the world is in abeyance
Till date, there have been 13.9M cases and 593K deaths due to COVID-19. In India, these numbers are xx active cases and yy deaths with the number of active cases increasing exponentially day by day. Due to which, the Government of India called for a nationwide lockdown on March 24, 2020. COVID-19 has had a grave impact on economic activity as well as on humans. We are in a recession that has never been experienced in a long time nor predicted in years to come. Amidst this noxious pandemic, a glimpse of positive effects is being observed.
While people around the world are quarantined amid the pandemic, wild animals have occupied a wide space to ramble across the country. A flock of flamingos was spotted in a pond in Mumbai, Maharashtra. A leopard in Hyderabad was spotted and a black panther was seen for the first time in South Goa’s Netravali wildlife sanctuary and recently in Karnataka. Wildlife is rejuvenating.
For years, humans have tried and failed at experiments designed to improve the quality of air in cities. It is surprising how it took a virus to reawaken and revitalize nature. For almost a decade we hoped to improve the quality of air that we breathe. However, despite multiple efforts, we weren’t able to achieve much success but due to the pandemic, we could finally inhale the breathable fresh air, see blue skies, and clear water streams-rivers like Yamuna and Ganges. According to the atmospheric researchers, the air pollution level in Delhi and Delhi NCR has dropped by 79% from the initial lockdown till the end of it, which is March 25 till June 8. Further, this drop has been witnessed in many cities across India such as in Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Lucknow. The nationwide lockdown reduced anthropogenic emissions which can be attributed to a 97% reduction in traffic and sub-optimal functioning of industries and coal-fired thermal plants. Levels of Nitrogen dioxide, which is a major air pollutant that impacts human health, reduced, thereby improving the air quality. While we are indoors, the environment is healing and becoming cleaner and greener. Earth now seems to be full of life.
In addition to reducing the spread of COVID-19, these lockdowns could help reduce mortality rates nationwide as personal hygiene, distant, and personal safety measures are being taken care of by a majority of the citizens. Additionally, these will prevent people from contagious diseases such as diarrhoeal, measles, tuberculosis, and lower respiratory infections. However, unless people continue to maintain these measures post lockdown, there won’t be a long-term impact on the aforementioned diseases.
In order to maintain the same atmospheric level and to preserve wildlife, the Government of India should make certain policies, such as improvement in local public transportation services with safety and security measures or it can continue with odd-even which had a significant impact on reducing traffic congestion which in turn lowered pollution. Furthermore, Industry regulations should be a concern to reduce the impacts of human activities. Post COVID-19, it is not feasible for the government of India to impose long term lockdowns but short term lockdowns once in two months can help a little in maintaining a decent atmospheric level.
COVID-19 has given us time to introspect and think and grab the opportunity to sustain these effects of lockdowns. I hope people retain a few of the changes post COVID-19 to have a world we all aspire.