‘Bhool gaya sub kuch, yaad nahi ab kuch’

I am reminded of the above lines from a song in the popular old Hindi film Julie. Yes, we have forgotten everything we learnt. COVID-19 was a global crisis that demonstrated how nature would beh

ave if we do not take corrective steps. The lockdown call alerted every nation that immediate action was needed to avoid a point of no return. Nature also showed us how the world would appear if we were locked inside homes for a fortnight. The roads were empty, and the pollution index slipped to low levels at places like Delhi. People were inside their homes but breathed fresh air, as there was no human activity outside. The coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan, China, in November 2019, and was named COVID‐19. The disease is a class of epidemics with human‐to‐human transmission caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). Later, the medical fraternity discovered several mutated variants. By 2022, the world reported 551 million cases in 194 countries, out of which about 6 million fatalities resulted.  While the exact animal source remains unconfirmed, evidence suggests bats as the natural reservoir and potentially an intermediary animal host, such as a pangolin, civet cat, or raccoon dog, as the direct source of transmission to humans. Primarily, the man-animal conflict is a major concern in conservation. When nature is disturbed, aberrations in the food habits of wildlife tend to happen. Coupled with this, habitat destruction also leads to changes in the animals’ behaviours. When it was discovered that the pangolins, bats, and Civet cats were the carriers of the COVID-19 virus, it was shocking because these wild animals have been in existence for millions of years in the evolutionary tree. Suddenly, how do these animals become the carriers?

One more interesting thing that happened during the lockdown period was that many wild animals, like leopards and tigers, roamed freely in towns. During COVID, many on social media expressed their concern for protecting wildlife and our forests. Simultaneously, people breathed clean air. Many wondered whether this lockdown period is a cautionary bell to human beings to mend their ways and lead an eco-friendly lifestyle. That’s all. It appears that we do not learn from mistakes.

“Learn, Unlearn, relearn” seems to be the maxim we follow, I guess.