Keywords

Low level of noise; Incensement in waste; Greenhouse gases.

Introduction

The coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) has propagated an unrivalled impact in almost all countries of the globe. The virus has affected almost all country on the globe (217 in total), circulate to more than 9.76 M lakh persons, and total deaths are 493 K and total recovered 4.92 M.

• Presently, all countries have struggle to fight the expand of coronavirus with COVID-19 screening tests and maintaining policies of social distancing. It is sure that the precedency turn around human’s health.

• For this understanding, the impact of the coronavirus on the nature and environment has been short analysed. The 1^st study estimated a positive indirect impact on the environment. On the one hand, climate experts predict that GHG emissions could drop to proportions never before seen since worldwar 2. This outcome is mainly due to the social distancing policies adopted by the governments following the appearance of the pandemic situation.

• For example, in Hubei state (China), social distancing measures were started in December 2019. These affected the income of all the countries. The result of this, stations and factories halted their income. Due to this, vehicles decrease during lockdown. Due to this nitrogen oxide level decrease upon china.

Effects of COVID-19 on the environment

Decreased concentrations of NO₂ and PM 2.5

Quality of air is important need for all human animals; 90% of the worldwide population lives in places where air quality index value is high. The effect of air quality degradation are manifested in a significant percentage. It is clear that every year 9% dies due to bad air quality on the Earth; the most affected countries India, Iran, Italy, China, Africa, Asia and Europe. China did very strict lockdown even they used army and did almost 70 days lockdown and control COVID-19. this type of restrictions impacted on air pollution even other type of pollution. Due to lockdown, NO₂ was decreased by 25 μg/m3 and 15 μg/m3 on China. PM 2.5 fell by 2 μg/m3 in Wuhan but decreased by 18.9 μg/m3 across the world. On the other side we watch many good and joyful changes in nature, decrease in nitrogen oxide, beaches looks neat and clean. (Figure 1-3) tells average concentrations from 14 to 25 March 2020 (panel b), compared to the monthly average of concentrations from 2019 (panel a).

Figure 1-3: The coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) has propagated an unrivalled impact in almost all countries of the globe

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) of the European Union noticed a decrease of PM 2.5 last February in compare to the last 3 years. According to CAMS, a decrease of nearly 20%–30% of PM 2.5 is observed in most parts of China, when comparing the difference between the monthly average for February 2020 and the mean of the monthly averages for February 2017, 2018, and 2019. In China only, all this types air quality improvements created human health benefits and solves many hearths problem that have exceeded confirmed coronavirus deaths thus far.(This is for China).

Neat and clean beaches

Beaches are one of the important natural sources situated in coastal areas. They give services (land, coconuts, sea foods, sand, recreation, and tourism) that are critical to the survival of coastal species and possess intrinsic values that should be protected from overexploitation and disuse continuously. However, disuse by humans has caused many coastal areas in the world to present pollution problems and dirtiness. India has nearly 7515.36 km of coastal area and most of areas are dirty. The less number of visitors, as a result of the social distancing measures due to COVID-19, has done a notable change in the appearance of many coastal areas in the world. For example, coastal areas like those of Acapulco (Mexico), Barcelona (Spain) and Goa (India) now look cleaner and with crystal clear waters.

Decrease in noise

Noise is known as an unwanted and not worth listening sound that could be sounded by anthropogenic activities (for traffic, industrial or commercial activities), the transit of engine vehicles, and horns, DJ’s at high volume. Environmental noise is one of the main sources of discomfort for the population and the environment, causing hearing problems and natural problems. The imposition of quarantine measures by most governments has caused people to stay at home. With this, the use of private and public transportation has decreased significantly. And transportation activities have stopped. These changes caused the noise level to decrease considerably in most cities in the world like Delhi (India), Beijing (China), New York (USA) etc.

Waste

The wide generation of chemical and medical waste is too dangerous, such as soil erosion, deforestation, air, and water pollution. India generates almost 62 tones chemical waste per year but during pandemic it is less it’s nearly 4.2 tones.

The quarantine policies, made in all the countries, have led costumers to increase their demand for e-shopping for home delivery. Continuously, chemical waste is generated by home holders and many companies. E-shopping is delivered packed and satisfactory products by companies like Amazon, Alibaba, Flipkart etc. Patricides and other chemical also responsible for waste.

Medical wastages are also increased. Wuhan city’s hospitals generated an average of 250 metric tons of medical wastage per day during COVID-19, compared to their previous average of less than 50 tons. On the Earth, other countries like USA, India, and Italy etc. have increased their medical wastage.

Waste recycling

Waste recycling has always been an environmental problem of interest to all countries. It is a common way to prevent pollution, save energy, and conserve natural resources. Due to pandemic, countries such as the America, China, Europe have stopped recycling programs in some of their cities, as authorities have been concerned about the risk of COVID- 19 spreading in recycling centres. Italy prohibited infected residents from sorting the waste. Also, the industry has seized the opportunity to repeal disposable bag bans, even though single-use plastic can still harbour viruses and bacteria.

Other effects

All the countries has asked waste water treatment plants to neatly their disinfection routines to prevent COVID-19 from spreading through the wastewater. There is no proof on the survival of the Coronavirus in drinking water waste water. Indian government didn’t take this types of actions.

Impact of covid-19 on ozone layer

Republic world did a fact check for the "ozone layer healing" rumour

A pause in Southern Hemisphere circulation trends due to the Montreal protocol” it is the name of an article, it was published in Nature journal. The study of this clarifies that with this rate the healing of the ozone layer will be done completely in future. It might be possible.

Image courtesy: Ozone watch website

A picture was taken on March 31^st which saw the thickness of ozone layer over Antarctic pole. In the picture, yellow colour and red colour show more ozone while purple and blue colour show the least ozone thickness. Now a days(during lockdown), the most of regions over Antarctica appear in green and yellow which states to be under the normal range of the ozone layer thickness as told in the colour

Scale on the ozone watch website

Although most of parts still shows blue colour region which means that the restoration will take more time to go before the earth’s ozone later gets completely restored. Montreal protocol is actually a treaty that was signed between 197 countries in order to minimize the use of Ozone-Depleting Substances (ODS) and was signed on 16^th September 1987.

IMPACT of covid-19 on India

Impact of air pollution

PM Modi started 14 hours voluntary public curfew which was named as “Janata Curfew”. India did its total 5 lockdowns, divided in total 5 phases. Phase 1 from 25^th march to 14^th April , phase 2 from 15^th April to 3^rd May, phase 3^rd from 4^th May to 17^th may, phase 4 from 18^th May to 31^st May, phase 5 from 1st June to 30^th June only for containment zones in year 2020 (Table 1).

Table 1: Statistics of periods for 24^th March to 14^th of April

Impact of wildlife

There have not been many bright spots in the coronavirus pandemic, but one has been the apparent return of nature as the frantic pace of modern life has slowed. We’ve seen fish-eating birds return to the clear waters, wild boar roaming the streets of Bergamo. Wildlife seems set for a bountiful spring and summer. Fewer cars on the road means less risk, and many birds and voles will be spared. In towns and cities, we can see easily the birds, animals and other wild lives.

It’s easy to see peacocks on Delhi’s road and in Dehradun the dears, in Kerala the elephant etc. Unfortunately, this is but a partial picture, and one that is limited to the minority world of industrialized nations. Most of the world’s biodiversity is found in the low-income countries and emerging economies of the global south and in such places the economic impacts of the pandemic are likely to be devastating for the natural world.