COVID-19 has resulted in drastic fall in demand & production of Oil and natural gases, all over the world! International prices of Oil, Petroleum and Gases have crashed down. Rate of consumption of our fossil fuels seem to has fallen down sharply. Use of public and private transport is minimal. Thousands of passanger aeroplanes are grounded since last more than a week. Production in most of the Industries has been stopped.
With a result, quality of air has also improved a lot; air pollution lavels are down considerably! Rivers and seas are comparatively clean with less pollutants! Forest life is recovering back; birds and marine life are bubbling with joy! Our ecology & environment are showing extraordinary improvement, when the whole humanity is suffering. Had this not been a grieving situation due to increasing number of deaths caused by COVID19, environment activists, all over the world, could have rejoiced the improvement in environment and must had launched big celebrations.
But, this situation is not for celebrations but for grief & sorrow and pray to the almighty to save humanity from further pain, suffering, grief, sorrow and deaths. Thousands of families stand devastated due to COVID19. It seems with humans got locked down inside their homes; Nature is giving a message to humanity about how much damages it caused and how much it encroached upon natural habitats of other species on this earth?
Is this simple MESSAGE being passed by NATURE or a clear cut WARNING about coming dangers?
Even we are not sure whether COVID19 is nature's creation or a man-made viruse, as part of some biological warfare. More than two hundred nations are confused and public is under fear/ panic. Thousands of deaths are occurring every day; thousands of new patients with COVID19 positive are being reported. Previously, the epic centre of COVID19 was Wuhan city in powerful China and now epicenter is world super power United States of America and European Countries. Even many countries' heads are being reported positive with COVID19. With one of the best top health & medical infrastructure, the advanced country like Italy is reporting daily deaths between 500-1000 COVID19 patients. Thousands of doctors and health workers, all over world, have already sacrificed their lives, by getting infected with the virus, while treating COVID19 positive patients. Now, doctors from Cuba and other countries are arriving in Italy to supplement their health & medical services. Number of COVID19 positive patients in United States of America is going to cross one lakh number. Thousands of scientists and researchers are going on with 24X7 research work to find a cure but still no success in sight. No doubt, the world fora, together, shall find out a vaccine and shall come out of this grave situation. But cost shall be too high! World economy order shall be changed with countries like China and North Korea trying to hold most of the treasuries of America. Whole world had to put on full brakes on normal life. Countries have rechanallised all national resources to tackle COVID19 and save countrymen.
In India too, where COVID19 is about to enter stage IIIrd, the nation has been brought under complete lock down. A package of Rs 1.70 lakh crore under 'PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme, aimed at providing a safety net for those hit the hardest by the 21 days lockdown which began from 25th March 2020, along with insurance cover for frontline medical personnel is announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman. About 800 million people will get free cereals and cooking gas apart from cash through direct transfers for three months; Higher wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA), Rs 1,000 ex-gratia payment to nearly 30 million poor senior citizens, widows and disabled as well as insurance coverage of as much as Rs 50 lakh each for about 2 million healthcare workers battling the disease. States have been asked to use the Building and Construction Workers Welfare Fund to provide relief to construction workers. A number of measures have been taken by the Reserve Bank of India including moratorium on EMI of all bank loans for three months, decreasing interest on loans to banks. As per reports, in order to tackle problem of liquidity in banks, the RBI is expected to inject thirty crores rupees. Arrangements are being made to start home deliveries of ration, vegetables and medicines. Medical Colleges and Hospitals are converted into dedicated COVID19 hospitals, with closure of all OPD, emergency and other services. In short, the Government has to rechanallise all its resources to tackle grave situation caused by COVID19. GDP rate shall be affected with high inflation rate. Banking sector will also be affected and might have no option but to go for mergers. Even number of existing government jobs might have to be cut down. Creating new opportunities for providing employment to youth, in all countries of this world, shall be a big challenge.
Don't you think, after we come out of COVID19 Pandemic, other serious contagious diseases like Dengu fever, Japanese fever shall be waiting to strike upon us. Already, there has been spurge in cancer, lungs, kidney and diabetic patients in India, since last two decades, due to food & milk adulteration and excessive usage of toxic chemicals in fruit orchards & agricultural fields.
I am of strong opinion that the present overwhelming world crisis is a clear cut WARNING for human race to immediately start "reverse engineering process" to contain and reverse "Climate Changes" and bring rising temperatures, atleast, back to 1970 stage. We, all, may spare some time out of ideal hours, all of us already locked down at homes, to look back and count the number of damages caused by human beings to ecology, environment, other species on earth planet, in the name of fast growth, unplanned/ unsustainable development, progress, sometimes in the name of "Green or Industrial Revolutions"! We should learn from this catastrophic situation, today, and come out of stage of complacency that we have a decade or more to start working seriously for reversing Climate Changes and bring rising temperatures back to 1970s stage. I really think we already have reached the stage when chain of catastrophic reactions, beyond control of government, have started taking place. This is a start only, still if the world acts together, we can control the situation and save humanity. We, all, compulsorily need to adopt a unified approach, all accross the world, which is nature friendly and which equally respects natural resources and other species living on earth planet. |
