Access to Healthcare
The risk of transmission of COVID-19 in rural areas has increased drastically owing to the reverse migration of people from urban areas to villages.
Not surprisingly, the number of COVIDpositive cases reported from these areas has been increasing.
Of the estimated 7,10,000 government hospital beds available, only 2,60,000 (37 per cent) beds are ava.
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Environmental Impact
Reports suggest a significant reduction in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions during the lockdown, attributable to reduced industrial, transportation and human activities.
But these environmental benefits are likely to be short-lived.
Governments across the globe have started to reopen businesses to boost economies, many pushing to weaken e.
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Impact on Tourism and Poaching
Tourism generates crucial revenue, which is reinvested into protection activities.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Protected Areas (PAs) have faced indefinite closure of tourism operations, but protection activities have to continue, more so because unemployment has raised human dependence on forests.
Consequently, the threat from poaching and encroa.
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Lessons from The Covid-19 Pandemic
More than halfway through 2020, the world continues to find itself in the middle of a pandemic of an unprecedented magnitude.
Initially reported in Wuhan, China, as pneumonia of unknown cause, COVID-19 has metamorphosed into a global pandemic.
Thus far, over 15 million people have been affected and over half a million deaths across 215 countries an.
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The Conservation Connection
Much of the illegal wildlife trade fuels the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) industry in the Far East.
A part of that journey involves trafficked wildlife species that end up in ‘wet markets’ and the exotic animal trade.
These environments, where animals are kept in squalid, unsanitary conditions, provide a perfect storm for viral spread.
Althou.
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The Human-Livestockwildlife Interface
Anthropogenic change in land use such as unsustainable agriculture, grazing, construction of linear infrastructure, logging, mining, hunting, and gathering forest produce leads to deforestation.
The fragmentation of habitats increases the interface between humans, livestock, and wildlife.
Emerging infectious diseases in wildlife and livestock often.
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WCT’s One Health Interventions
Acknowledging the interconnectedness between human health, animal health, and the environment, it is only logical to promote collaborative efforts between these sectors to achieve their respective goals.
Focusing on the conservation workforce, WCT aims to build capacities in the health sector, impacting the frontline forest staff.
For them, we earl.
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Wet Markets
Speculations about animal origins, and ‘spillover’ of the disease to humans at ‘wet markets’ in Huanan, China, are probably the least ‘novel’ aspects of COVID-19.
The majority of newly emerging or re-emerging diseases have originated in animals.
Diseases like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Ebola, .
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What Is One Health?
The potential origin of COVID-19 from wild species forms the basis of the One Health paradigm, linking human health, animal health (predominantly livestock) and the environment.
The concept is not new and has been well established in the fields of veterinary and human medicine by those working in disease surveillance and food security.
But it has r.
