Journal of Environmental Biology

Post COVID-19 lesson: Understand the environment for human survival and sustenance

Editorial by Antarctican Professor Dr. I. K. Pai, Consulting Editor, Journal of Environmental Biology, Luclnow (India)

Abstract

From the time immemorial, there had been always competition between Nature and man. As it is said that, only optimists have right to live on this planet, despite having pandemic like smallpox existed for thousands of years on earth and the cure was successfully discovered by Edward Jenner through vaccination. Later, cure for plague, cholera, tuberculosis, whooping cough, SARS, H1N1 etc., were discovered in a much shorter period; the cure for last couple of them were developed in a few months' time, after they appeared on this globe.

??? The year 2020 has brought in mixed feelings. On one side, it has created havoc among human beings in the form of Covid-19, which has infected millions of people and lakhs of people have succumbed to it. Several countries are on the verge of economic bankruptcy. So called economic giants and military supremacy are finding no place to escape and hide from this viral disease. All kinds of medical superiority, wonderful and best medical support have gone with the wind. Estimates reveal that, it will take several years for the world economy to come back to normalcy. There will be permanent damage on the world order. Human beings will have to acclimatize to a new social and economic life style.

??? On the other hand, Nature has bloomed within 480 hrs of the world lockdown. It may be Thames, Ganga, Yamuna or even inland waters of Milan, which had been polluted for years, have become cleaner. This lockdown has achieved, what millions of dollars, thousands of research projects of national and multinationals could not! Air quality has improved drastically. Plants and animals are flourishing. The lesson we learn from this lockdown is that, to improve quality of air, water and environment in general, we need not spend millions of dollars; just keep quiet. Nature will bounce back to normalcy. Like mother, who pardons her progeny for all their misdeeds and ill treatment, Nature too seems to have pardoned human beings for their ill treatment to mother nature within 20 days of lockdown. Man has learnt to live within four walls of his dwelling place and do his work. All materialistic luxuries have vanished from the face of the earth. He has re-invented a new way of life to lead. Nature's fury has made him realize that, in front of the nature, all his self-proclaimed superiority has absolutely no meaning and also that, he is helpless in the front of Nature. World order has changed forever. Concepts such as webinar, e-learning, e-commerce, e-trading etc., have become the order of the day. Actual teaching and evaluation in centers of learning, also have to be re-oriented in accordance with the present-day needs.

??? Such kind of problems faced by the world every now and then, demands the understanding of the nature, needless to mention the interaction between abiotic and biotic factors, where biotic factors are mostly dynamic. Thus, the improvement of environment should be achieved by understanding intra and inter specific interactions among flora, fauna with abiotic factors. As biota on this globe is innumerable, whatever the knowledge we are having today, about them, is not even a tip of the ice berg. Leave alone anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, phylogeny, genetics, evolutionary aspects, we don't even know the actual number of biotas existing on this globe. Though considerable information is available, regarding diversity of higher organisms; scanty and scattered information is available on minor and so called non attractive fauna like viruses, bacteria, protozoans, ants, nematodes, abyssal forms etc., due to varied reasons, which may hold key for understanding the nature in a better way. Unless we discover, classify and name such biota, before they become extinct from the face of the globe, research on other aspects is not possible. It is a dangerous trend that, due to several reasons including lack of interest and return, the field of taxonomy and systematics are becoming `endangered'. So, there is an urgent need to increase the crop of field biologists, who can help the world develop other advanced fields of research.

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