Lost Biodiversity, incompatible prana and Nipah Virus

Biodiversity img src: http://businessbiodiversity.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/diversity.jpg — Biodiversity
img src: http://businessbiodiversity.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/diversity.jpg

Prana (प्राण) is gross form is Vayu with intelligence. When we destroy biodiversity, we make various forms of प्राण free radical. And with that, we invite unforeseen future of community sickness. From Ebola to Zika, this is primary reason.

In a recent[1] study titled “Has land use pushed terrestrial biodiversity beyond the planetary boundary? A global assessment” , researchers notes: “Ecologists found that grasslands, savannas and shrublands were most affected by biodiversity loss, followed closely by many of the world’s forests and woodlands. They say the ability of biodiversity in these areas to support key ecosystem functions such as growth of living organisms and nutrient cycling has become increasingly uncertain.”

Land use and related pressures have reduced local terrestrial biodiversity, but it is unclear how the magnitude of change relates to the recently proposed planetary boundary (“safe limit”). We estimate that land use and related pressures have already reduced local biodiversity intactness—the average proportion of natural biodiversity remaining in local ecosystems—beyond its recently proposed planetary boundary across 58.1% of the world’s land surface, where 71.4% of the human population live. Biodiversity intactness within most biomes (especially grassland biomes), most biodiversity hotspots, and even some wilderness areas is inferred to be beyond the boundary. Such widespread transgression of safe limits suggests that biodiversity loss, if unchecked, will undermine efforts toward long-term sustainable development.

The Nipah virus in South Asia, and the closely related Hendra virus in Australia, both in the genus of henipah viruses, are the most urgent examples of how disrupting an ecosystem can cause disease. The viruses originated with flying foxes, Pteropus vampyrus, also known as fruit bats. They are messy eaters, no small matter in this scenario. They often hang upside down, looking like Dracula wrapped tightly in their membranous wings, and eat fruit by masticating the pulp and then spitting out the juices and seeds. [2]

The bats have evolved with henipah over millions of years, and because of this co-evolution, they experience little more from it than the fruit bat equivalent of a cold. But once the virus breaks out of the bats and into species that haven’t evolved with it, a horror show can occur, as one did in 1999 in rural Malaysia. It is likely that a bat dropped a piece of chewed fruit into a piggery in a forest. The pigs became infected with the virus, and amplified it, and it jumped to humans. It was startling in its lethality. Out of 276 people infected in Malaysia, 106 died, and many others suffered permanent and crippling neurological disorders. There is no cure or vaccine. Since then there have been 12 smaller outbreaks in South Asia. [2]

And to preserve biodiversity, no global program will help. We must act locally. Educate fellow community homes.

[1] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6296/288

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1

Ayurveda And Green Vegetables

Artificial Light: Silent Killer