The Joshimath tragedy is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of an unprecedented challenge. It is not just about one Indian hill town that finds itself drowning. It reflects the dire consequences of human encroachment and destruction of natural habitats and environment. This is the result of messing with the forests, animals, land and the entire ecosystem of nature. This is not something that happened overnight. We were warned. The risk of destabilization of Joshimath was first identified in 1976 (i.e. 47 years ago). More recently, in May 2010, environmentalists and academic researchers warned of impending disaster in the hill town through an article in the Indian scientific journal Current Science.
There are different forms of human abuse of the environment. About a decade ago, the Indian subcontinent observed a drastic decline in the population of vultures. It was discovered in the 1990s for the indiscriminate and high-dose use of diclofenac sodium, a pain reliever for pets and domestic animals, such as cows. Vultures that were given this drug died of chemical poisoning by eating the remains of dead animals. These birds have been part of the food chain for a long time. Although people in some parts of India consider vultures in the sky to be an ominous sign, but when their numbers started dwindling we realized their value to the ecosystem. We are left with the skeletons of dead animals and are serving as a breeding ground for pathogens, which increases the health risk to us and other animals.
Over the past eight decades, nearly 350 new human pathogens and diseases have emerged, including COVID, with most pathogens having jumped from plants and animals (in the wild) to humans. At the root of the outbreak of these diseases has been human interference with nature, the same interference that has resulted in climate change and global warming. Worldwide environmental damage, rising temperatures, large-scale deforestation, unplanned urbanisation, unnecessary use of antibiotics and ‘antimicrobial resistance’ have emerged as important threats.
In the past decade, the inter-relationships between the health of humans, animals and the environment have been studied and we have been given the concept of ‘One Health’ by which we all must come together to save all three: Man, animal and environment. As part of India’s G20 presidency, India has proposed prevention, preparedness and response to health emergencies, prevention, preparedness and response as a key focus area with ‘one health’ as sub-themes and antimicrobial resistance. Yet, on all these fronts the expansion of activities to harm us, on various pretexts, continues unabated. One reason is that policymakers continue to ignore scientific evidence and the voice of reason.
In April 2022, a study published in the journal Nature concluded that if the world’s temperature rises by 2 °C between 2020 and 2070, about 15,000 new pathogens that are currently in the wild will come into human contact. Even if a small proportion of them cause disease, this will greatly increase the risk of disease outbreaks and epidemics. The most affected by this crisis will be the residents of Asia and Africa. We cannot ignore such scientific warnings.
For Joshimath in Uttarakhand, had the above scientific comment of May 2010 received top-level attention, we might have been able to avert the tragedy that has unfolded in recent weeks.
Neanderthals are the direct ancestors of modern humans or Homo sapiens. They walked the earth before humans learned how to write and we have no documentary evidence of their life and times. Much of our understanding of them is derived from excavations and other forms of anthropological evidence. Until a few decades ago, based on varying degrees of archaeological evidence, most anthropologists believed that Neanderthals were not social and did not care for each other. However, around the 1980s, some remains of Neanderthals were found that showed evidence of bone re-union after injury, which would not have been possible unless others in their group had cared for the individual Would have been This forced us to change our view of Neanderthals and their social life.
There was no written evidence available to guide us on Neanderthals. However, future generations of humans will have plenty of written and video evidence on the life and times of our species today. So, should our progeny conclude that 21st century Homo sapiens were hypocrites, they couldn’t be farther from the truth. After all, we all talk a lot about protecting the environment and public health, but our actions are mostly the opposite.
We still have a chance to improve ourselves. Over the past few decades, in the name of development, little has been done to address our increasing carbon footprints, the destruction of flora and fauna and the propulsion of climate change. The Joshimath tragedy reminds us to always be aware of the dangers of development. Our policy makers should listen to the quiet voice of scientists, researchers and environmentalists and then act on scientifically valid advice. The time has come for governments to fulfill their promises on the environment. If this is not done, we will be entitled to the negative view that future generations think of us.
Chandrakant Lahariya is a consultant physician and public policy and health systems specialist.
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