Time to Remember

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” Frank Lloyd Wright

June 5, 2020 was World Environment Day and theme “Time for Nature and Biological Diversity”. Every year World Environment Day is widely celebrated in more than 143 countries across the world to tell us of the present state of the environment, and remind us of things we need to do to maintain the quality environment. Of late, the day is popularly being called “People’s Day” as it increasingly becoming clear that unless people get involved and every individual is sensitized on environmental issues, it is unlikely we achieve anything tangible in terms of environment and biodiversity conservation. We have had treaties in place, protocols and legislation on papers but looking at the data the results are not too rewarding. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) annually organizes public lectures on various environmental issues and every member country participates. The schools and educational institutes have been involved through various activities and they are playing an important role in raising awareness on the topical themes.

The year 2020 is markedly different as the Pandemic has put everything to halt. On environmental front stories of COVID-19 a boon to environment have topped some newspapers and social media platforms. May be to some extent as COVID-19 has helped improve air quality. Lockdown temporarily led to a decrease in economic activities and drop in road transport thus cleaning skies and decreasing levels of certain air pollutants. But abiotic environment is just one component of larger environmental complex and biodiversity for sure is essentially that needs to be looked at too. Even in this lockdown biodiversity has been providing the food resources and essential infrastructure that supports life on Earth. But things are not as rosy as they appear, and clear sky and animals wandering is no clear signal of better biological diversity. It takes years for an ecologically stable community through various stages of succession to evolve and perform the role.  Species are getting extinct at a faster rate than ever, and situation is more alarming for the plant species. A recent study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, June issue estimated that plants are now becoming extinct nearly 500 times faster than the background extinction rates. Also, the pattern of extinction is now resembling that of animal extinction that was observed almost a decade ago. Hotspots of biodiversity such as islands, tropical forests, mountains, and hills are losing plants on account of various reasons.

   

It is important to understand that some of the plant species that are getting extinct are keystone species-species that play a pivotal role in the stability of the ecosystems. Also, from an ecological standpoint, the role played by plants is important in maintaining temperature, soil stability and hydrological cycle. Plant species have hundreds of species of soil microflora and microfauna that include bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and earthworms interacting with the below-ground parts and insects, birds, and hosts of other organisms above ground. It can easily be understood that loss of one such plant in an ecosystem can result in the extinction of many valuable components of biological diversity that may have economic or pharmaceutical value and is not even known to mankind.

As observed, data on extinction rates and species losses are coming from countries and researchers of selected areas, mostly Europe. Every region, every ecosystem is important and having a primary data on biological resources is a pre-requisite to assess its status. The biological diversity of valleys and mountains need to be inventoried more than ever before. Researchers working in regional research laboratories, universities, colleges, schools, and citizen groups should actively get involved in various programmes to prepare their own inventories and then collate data. We should know what we have and what we fear to lose. Explore the areas near your settlements, observe the living forms and try to identify them. Stay close to nature, care for plants, nurture more and more trees.

Monika Koul, Department of Botany, Hansraj College, University of Delhi

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