I had mentioned in my article a year ago during the mayhem caused by second wave that this pandemic is not going to go away without teaching the mankind the lessons that it ought to have learnt otherwise. Perhaps we all learn only when faced with a crisis. Now, many are acknowledging that it will have far reaching ramifications as perhaps the WWII had.
The covid menace has although receded from many parts of the world but the world is now facing two major crises situation; one the climate change. Two. The Economic crisis caused by Covid and the Russia-Ukraine war.
The impact of climate change has although nothing to do with Covid as it was something everyone was expecting sooner or later, but off course it’s quite possible that virus attacks may be the outcome of the climate change and we may have to face more such attacks. As the duration of high temperatures increase and the rainfall in many areas becoming scanty there will surely be an impact on food security, availability of water and so on which may result in migrations, health hazards , law and order problems and may be water wars ; internal as well as external , as described by Brahma Chellany in his Book titled - Water ; Asia's New Battle Ground.
All the political and business leaders gathering at Davos for the WORLD ECONONMIC FORUM meet are voicing similar concerns as their economies have come under repeated shocks ; one. Because of the pandemic that resulted into repeated lock downs and then the Ukraine –Russia war which disrupted the supply of grains and of oil thereby increasing the inflation and pushing up the cost of living. The world leaders are now talking about the Global recession.
When we examine these crises in detail we would realise that these were our own creations.
Consumerism driven growth model and our irresponsible behavior has led us all to this path.
Just to give an example,
In the year 2015 while visiting Ranikhet and Kausani, located in Uttarakhand in the month of May I noticed that the locals had set the grass on fire on the slopes of mountains, god only knows what purpose would it have served and secondly, the Govt allowed uncontrolled mushrooming of Hotels, Resorts and Lodges for the tourists, resulting in the creation of land mafia and further degradation of environment. It was surprising as well as agonising to see almost half of Bhim tal at Nainital dry in May.
It would be naive to believe that the Govt agencies have no idea that Uttarakhand is an ecologically sensitive region and the tourism industry needs to be controlled.
But despite the calamity at Badrinath, a few years ago , neither the Govt nor the people have learnt any lesson. When all these crises situations are taken into consideration together, they can have a devastating impact on our lives. At this hour it is therefore very essential for the Govt to maintain peace and tranquility in the society, or else all these collectively can lead to a civil strife.