Ganesh Paudel  / Amrit Sharma 

CURRENTLY the world is struggling with the crisis brought by coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus in Wuhan city of China. Regarding its patient zero is yet to be confirmed and recently South China Morning Post even reported that coronavirus case traced back to November 17, 2019. This is an alarming situation globally.
Almost all affected countries have followed the strategy of lockdown and restrictions on national and international movements to control this pandemic. The virus successfully made host to humans which is thought to have originated in a seafood market and claimed to be a place of illegal wildlife trade. On February 7, Chinese researchers warned of the spread of virus from a pangolin to human which is used as food and medicine in Asia, although it is not confirmed yet. This type of virus had caused pandemic in different period of time in history as well. In 2003, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic affected China. Likewise, a second outbreak of severe illness began in 2012 in Saudi Arabia with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Researchers warn that in certain time in future, there will be outbreak of virus in different parts of the world. Diseases like HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARs, MARs and now coronavirus are believed to have transmitted from animals.
The impact of coronavirus is already evident in the economy with the tourism and other service sectors hard hit by this pandemic. Prolonged lockdowns and isolations have created a great challenge to the national and global economy. Serious question is how long nations will prolong the lockdowns? Researchers including Tom Orlik in Bloomberg stated that corona pandemic causes a loss of $2.7 trillion in output which is equivalent to the entire GDP of the United Kingdom. Even some nations are thinking to save economy by ignoring corona. But in fact nothing can replace the cost of human life. First, we should prioritise our activity to control the spread of this virus and only after that we can think about other things. This virus is not threating only one country and region but the entire human civilisation.
Threat of the virus remains until one last infected person remains in the world. Lockdown is one of the measures to control the spread. It naturally takes time for complete eradication of virus from the world. Therefore, we need to learn living with Coronavirus as we do for common cold virus (Rhino virus). It needs more nature based solution to the problem and isolation rather than over freedom.
Corona for the first time caused the high level of isolation in this interconnected world and globalisation. It teaches countries to be self-sufficient at the basic level producing all basic requirements of human beings. This pandemic has forced human beings to rethink on the civilization and development. With the modernisation, connectivity between human has developed to such level that interconnection is indispensable. Do we need this extent of connectivity? These questions are relevant to current isolation mechanisms being followed to control the pandemic. It is essential to develop adaptability to deal with the virus not only that of today but also possible threat of tomorrow. For increasing adaptability and resilience daily behavior pattern of human beings need to be changed. The natural ecosystems are not only beneficial to humans but also the reservoir of diseases and viruses.
This pandemic makes humans feel what it is like living in isolation from freedom. Then what about the feelings of animals kept in cages, zoos or any kind of enclosure? Human has exploited almost everything on earth keeping own interest in center. Coronavirus warns human beings to think about the optimum number of humans and their disruption in natural process on earth. Thinking broadly, earth is a small part of universe and human is tiny as virus from universal overview. In fact, human is only creature which degraded the planet in every moment to fulfill his greed.
Origin of this virus reminds us about food we eat, how we eat and when we eat? Researchers identified that non-veg suffer more from diseases compared to vegetarians. It is believed that raw vegetables serves best to boost our energy than fried, boiled or cooked. Our daily behaviors are quite important to defeat viral and other diseases. Our super consciousness and practice of spiritual living might be best options for the meaningful life and sustaining human civilisation on earth. Therefore, human needs to rethink about current physical development. Let us have a vision of an ideal environment in the planet where everyone will be happy and prosperous.

(Paudel is Assistant Forest Officer at the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment in Gandaki State. Sharma is Conservation Officer of Annapurna Conservation Area.)