COVID-19: Boon for Environment. Yes indeed!! it is somewhere boon for the nature. We have destroyed our nature to a great extent. Now nature is taking its revenge and healing itself.
There are a lot of changes happening as we entered into the COVID era. Changes which we could never ever have imagined in our entire life I guess. Imagine sitting at home for a full month due to some pandemic to which no cure has been found. And yet we used to think humans are invincible. A small virus has got the whole of mankind on its feet and forced them to alter their lifestyles drastically.
We are talking about the global reduction in economic activity across sectors and also ramping down of human activities which have led to a positive impact on our environment.
-Pollution levels have receded with industrial and transport emissions coming down significantly. All this has led to a considerable reduction in pollutants in the atmosphere, soil and water. According to data the world carbon emissions have also dropped which is goof for the environment. Economists say that this is nature’s way of reminding humans that enough is enough and we need to realise that we have to act rationally while dealing with nature and exploiting it will have dire consequences.
COVID-19: Boon for Environment
As we are focussing on India, some of the facts which give a very positive picture relating to the environment are as follows:
- Places like Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Lucknow witnessed their average Air Quality Index (AQI) staying within two digits, which was not the case earlier. Delhi which normally recorded an AQI of 200 and 900 and above during peak pollution, has seen the AQI fall below 20 which is startling.
- We saw a very happy picture at Jalandhar, where one could see the Dhauladhar mountain range which is at a distance of 213 kms from Jalandhar, which was not visible from here in decades.
- Rivers such as the Ganga and Yamuna have seen significant improvement in pollution levels since the nationwide lockdown had been implemented due to Corona virus.
- The endangered, South Asian River Dolphins also known as Ganges Dolphins were spotted in the Ganga river after 30 years.
- In Navi Mumbai, where the flamingos gather every year, but this year we witnessed a massive increase in their numbers due to the lockdown which resulted in cleaner atmosphere.
- Water from Har-ki-Pauri in Haridwar was tested and the tests revealed that the water had been classified as 'fit for drinking after chlorination', for the first time in decades.
- Due to the lockdown the drainage from the industrial outlets have significantly reduced thereby bringing a significant change in the water quality.
Well above are just some of the many examples of changes in the Environment that a deadly virus like Corona has brought about. Though we pray and want this pandemic to end very soon but we need to step up and act responsibly towards nature and think of ways to prevent damage to our environment. We need a lot of development and economic activities but we should also think at what cost we are going through with this. Nature has its own way of taking revenge.
Lastly to sum it up the Covid-19 lockdown has healed the planet in a way never seen before in living history and whether we should be thankful for the virus or not is really debatable. We should probably be looking at having a refined lifestyle to preserve mother nature and work in a way to restore our planet from the damage we have caused over the years. Time to wake up…….
Feel free to comment down below if you have any querries. Also comment and tell us what environment changes you have felt.
Thanks!
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