Global Pandemic : A Boon For Environment And Planet - Myth or Reality :

The global disruption caused by covid-19 has resulted in various indirect effects on the environment as well as on climate. Due to this pandemic the government of various nations has started following the social distancing norms by implementing lockdown to control the spread of virus due to which majority of people are now bound to live inside their houses. We can say that 'Nature has hit the reset button.'

 According to my opinion, this pandemic is "blessing in disguise." You may have also seen the change in the nature. I don't want to say but - If there is any threat to the environment it's human itself. 

The major change we can see in nature is it's air quality(especially in metro cities like Delhi).

Decrease in NO2 levels in India 

                       

As you can clearly see in the above image how the air quality has improved drastically during the lockdown. The emission of NO2 has also gone down. There was an drop of 35.6% of NO2 in the air. 

The pandemic has not only shown his generosity on air but on water also. We all know the water of Ganga, Yamuna is considered pure, at least for now it seems to be true. Due to the lockdown, the surface water quality has increased since last year. It has given a chance to aquatic animals to flourish again. 

Whereas, wildlife has experienced both some positive and some negative effects. This pandemic has given a chance  to endangered species to survive, which is positive. While on the other hand, the people who have lost their jobs are now dependent on nature for everything, therefore, for their benefit they have started illegal poaching of animals(especially in poor countries like Africa), which is negative.

              Where the lockdown has been a boon for our environment, on the other hand it has became a Bane also. Before the implementation of lockdown many people started stocking packed foods or snacks, that was considered to be recycled but due to social distancing there is a reduction in workers in recycling units which leads to increase in the waste. Another bane is the usage of internet. Internet not only effects us but it also impacts environment. According to a study, internet usage contributes about 3.7% to the global emissions, i.e., equivalent to all traffic of the world. And this figure is going to be doubled by 2025. 

Here you can clearly see the drastic increase in usage of internet in different regions of earth. 

However, after seeing the effects of pandemic on environment,  we can make a conclusion that we humans are mere player of this nature. Nature has always created numerous hurdles and situations for the mankind giving an alert on the use of natural resources. 

At last, I have a question coming in mind that, will the nature continue to flourish in future also or it not? Or it will become more adverse?