By: MALIK BABAR
The most often quoted definition of Democracy which says that Government is ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ actually beautifully sums up today’s unfortunate situation of COVID-19 albeit, by replacing the word “democracy” with “Destruction”. The cruel ways that this pandemic is manifesting in could be explained in no better way.
Substantial amount of scientific evidence suggests that mankind has often suffered pandemics and disasters that are of its own making. Some studies show that environmental pollution as well as cutting down of forests is by and large the main reason behind this dreadful pandemic that we are suffering. As humans kept doing it with impunity over the years, it was only a matter of time that this misadventure was to boomerang in our faces and quite sadly, IT DID! Study after study has shown that a plethora of viruses reside in forests (with wild animals) and it is but natural that loss of their home (forests) compels them to venture in human populations thus increasing the chances of close contact and eventually the transmission of virus.
A recent study has published an alarming and bone-chilling fact stating that about 1.7 million viruses reside in the wild, most of them zoonotic, i.e., they can get transmitted to humans, on contact with animals – our world therefore faces the possibility of many such pandemics in future” who knows that those pandemics might be more disastrous.
Covid-19, one such virus, transmitted through Bats and which has brought the world to its knees, has not only ravaged lives and livelihoods, it has come to us as a warning signal announcing-loud and clear- that it is high time humans mend their ways otherwise the future might be more bleak.
Development, no doubt, is the backbone of economy, but SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT where environmental, Animal and Human health coexist and co-prosper, is the way forward.
The saying of the great saint “Sheikh Nuruddin Nurani (R.A) ” Ann posh teli yeli vann posh” ( Food will thrive only till the woods survive” has never seemed more apt. But it is not only ann (food) but life as a whole that depends, to a huge extent, on woods.
Let us pledge today that we will do our bit towards caring for environment and making this world a better place to live!
