Vikas Singh Baghel
Founder & Chief Editor
Even though the air has been cleaner in context of the year passed due to global lockdowns and shut down of human activities a global level; not only air but flowing water of rivers and canals etc. are a lot cleaner in the last 5 -10 years or so. We are no doubt very excited to witness this reform which was impossible to make in this fast track tech life. As humans we have always searched for new and effective ways of existence rather than compromising their leisure or we can say tech developed life. But I see a more polluted future in times to come. A few benefits of that also was thining of smog, able to hear and see the birds as the world was quite quiet and without much activity even wild animals were seen strolling on the roads, it was like we were in the cages like zoo’s etc. and animals were visiting us for their entertainment. Now some experts fear that the world risks of future with more human activities like traffic, pollution, climate change etc
Since the outbreak of COVID -19, medical waste generation is increased globally, which is major threat to public health and environment. During sample collection of the suspected COVID -19 patients, diagnosis, treatment of huge number of patients and disinfection purpose, lots of infections and biomedical wastes are generated from hospitals. To protect from the viral infection, presently people are using face masks, hand gloves and other safety equipments, which increase the amount of healthcare waste. Further, a large number of people are isolated at their homes. This has led to more use of single use plastics as well as it has created more demand for the need of fuel (fossils) for individual transportation and mobility for the supply of goods. As many countries have ordered lockdown and asked the people to stay at their homes, the peoples working in protected areas mainly in National Parks, Marine Conservation Zones and Wildlife Sanctuaries are stuck at their homes, leaving these places and zones unmonitored. The absence of these people have marked a huge rise in the wildlife hunting, illegal deforestation and fishing activities. Same is with the ecotourism tourist spots with higher risk of encroachment and illegal harvesting How tribal communities living nearby the forests got affected due to lockdown as their main occupation is related to Jungle/Parks etc. In form of Gypsy drivers, Guides, Resort workers etc
So we need to move forward with caution for post-covid changes as our fight for it is not yet done. We need to follow the Government guidelines until we are over with the vaccine. Getting back to normal will not be easy and there would be more sacrifices and compromises to be made in the near future, COVID ERA is not going to get over so lightly.
Best of luck to us all and let’s fight this together …