PANDEMIC AND THE LESSON LEARNT

If nature is to name its spoiler; man will certainly top the list.  No other living being  on Earth has so much exploited nature for his comfort and adventures.  The way we humans are living, is tremendously destructive towards nature. Since the times immemorial, we continue to destroy to create and use natural resources in the air, on land, and in the sea.  No wonder nature has great endurance and resilience but there is always a limit. Crossing of this limit brings imbalances in the form of global warming, environmental degradation, mass extinction, ecological crisis leading to ecological collapse that give rise to disasters and numerous types of infections and subsequent  diseases resulting in loss of human life.

Nature reacts and retaliates, of course, this reaction comes after a long time but when it happens its dimensions are beyond our imagination. With all the knowledge available at our disposal, no one could predict the arrival of corona menace and its magnitude. The daily death toll is rising by thousands the world over and when it will stop, is any body’s guess. Man can take pride in reaching moon and label itself as conqueror of Earth but now it looks far beyond truth. The smallest organism on Earth, the corona virus, has shown man its place in the universe. We are crying and praying for nature’s mercy. The pandemic has made to stand all at one platform; the mighty and weaker, the rich and poor, and the learned and illiterates. We feel as helpless as we were a century ago during the Spanish flu pandemic.

Every adversity also brings some blessings along with. During the corona lockdown, with extremely restricted movement of automobiles on the roads,  there  were few accidents. The corona virus is saving more lives than it is claiming ;  nearly 1300 accidents occur in India each day resulting in more than 400 deaths. We are able to see the unseen; the scenic beauty of hills from out roof tops .is a treat for the eyes. We could see the birds we had seen long before and their chirping fill our mornings with joy and a rare contentment.

The pandemic will ultimately go but will leave many lessons for us to learn and act upon. Ironically, man cannot be cent per cent unexploitive of nature, but a balance needs to be maintained by observing certain limits. We cannot win over nature but certainly can manage to live with it. We need to be kind to the flora and fauna on this Earth with the ‘live and let live’ attitude.

Dr. Gursharan Singh

Dean – School of Agriculture Science

RIMT University