Destruction of Nature: Is it Responsible for the Emergence of Pandemics?

COVID-19 has paralysed the world as we know it. The novel coronavirus has brought the world of humans to a grinding halt. The disease has made humans retreat to their homes and nature has reclaimed the earth. One way of looking at it is this is nature’s way of signalling humans to stop trying to own the Planet Earth and to end all destructive actions towards it. Although one cannot rule out nature’s decisive force, in such a precarious situation it becomes imperative to understand the origin and spread of infectious diseases, in general, that cause pandemic and pandemonium. Read more in this insightful article by Indumathi S.

- Indumathi S

A new study, titled 'Habitat fragmentation, livelihood behaviors, and contact between people and non-human primates in Africa' by Stanford University says that deforestation is to blame for the spread of viruses that cause infectious diseases like COVID-19. What is more perturbing is that as per the study it will be more common in the future for viruses like coronavirus to pass from animals to human beings as more forests are cleared. The study, published in Landscape Ecology, analysed the degradation of tropical forests in Uganda, and its subsequent increasing risk of physical interactions with viruses carried by wild primates.

Predicting Patterns

‘At a time when COVID-19 is causing an unprecedented level of economic, social, and health devastation, it is essential that we think critically about how human behaviours increase our interactions with disease-infected animals,’ says the study’s lead author Laura Bloomfield in a press release. Laura Bloomfield, an MD student in the School of Medicine and a Ph.D. candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources in Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, adds ‘The combination of major environmental change, like deforestation, and poverty can spark the fire of a global pandemic.’