From earthquakes to a pandemic, we have witnessed the daunting disasters of 2020. And we are just halfway through this year. Probably there’s more?
False Alarm of World War in 2020
The year began with the rise of another World War, as it was noticed that there were military conflicts worldwide. The fire of World war to erupt into a volcanic horror still faintly burns. The centered countries include The US, Iran, China, India, North Korea, and Turkey. As these countries intertwined in military rumbles.
Forest Fire in Australia 2020
Australia witnessed another blow of its bushfire season. This time around in 2020, the country saw the unusually intense fire. By January 14, 2020, it was recorded that 18.626 million hectares were burnt.
Ecologists from The University of Sydney also estimated that around 480 million mammals, birds, and reptiles had succumbed to this blow since September. Concerns were raised as to whether the entire species of plants and animals may have been wiped out by this bushfire, later the toll expanded to more than a billion.
New South Wales noticed that the fires had burnt through more as compared to other blazes in the past 25 years. This disaster was considered to be the country’s worst bushfire season.
CAA & NRC Protest in 2020
Back in 2019, In India, The timeline from December 4, 2019, till the beginning of March 2020, saw significant protests that erupted in Assam specifically in Guwahati due to the Citizenship Amendment Act. There were protests which were held in several metropolitan cities across India, which included:
Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, and Mumbai.
Later, Universities across the country, including Cotton University, Gauhati University, IIT Bombay, Madras University, Presidency University in Kolkata, Jamia Millia Islamia, Osmania University, University of Hyderabad, University of Delhi, Panjab University and Aligarh Muslim University also raised their opinion through protests against the Act.
By December 16, 2019, the protests had spread like wildfire across India. Which started occurring in cities including Chennai, Jaipur, Bhopal, Lucknow, and Puducherry.
CAA: The amendment to the 1995 act that gives the Indian citizenship to illegal migrants who are Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, and Christian from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and who entered India before 2014 following the religious persecutions. As the building of the bill suggests, it did not mention Muslims and other communities who fled from the same or other neighboring countries. Or Refugees from Sri Lankan Tamils in India, Rohingyas from Myanmar, and Tibetan refugees are not mentioned in the bill.
Coronavirus Pandemic 2020
Eventually, The claws of the Virus snatched away all the daily routines of an individual worldwide. Many countries are facing an economic crisis that came along with the declaration of a worldwide pandemic, which was announced by WHO on March 11, 2020.
This worldwide chaos took significant tolls on the people in charge of its control.
Borris Johnson, British Prime minister, announced he had mild symptoms of the Virus on March 27, 2020. As of now, he has been recovered and also Charles, Prince of Whales. Germany’s Hesse state lost its Finance Minister, Thomas Schaefer, on March 28, 2020. It was reported as a suicide. It is said that he was anxious about the economic fallout due to the ongoing situation.
Amidst all this Ebola Outbreak was again identified in Congo, Africa.
Visakhapatnam Gas tragedy 2020
Early mornings of May 7, 2020, saw Visakhapatnam’s gas leak that occurred at the LG Polymers chemical plant in the R. R. Venkatapuram village. The death toll was noted to be 11, and more than 1,000 people became sick after being exposed to the gas as per the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). Insufficient maintenance of units storing the styrene monomer, including improper storage and some operational errors, were the reasons that were registered.
Migrant workers loss in 2020
Due to a nationwide lockdown, which resulted in job losses for the migrant workers. No public vehicles were running according to the protocols of lockdown, Many had to travel back to their homes via other possibilities, walking back was the only way. As a result of that, on the morning of May 8, 2020, an empty goods train ran over and killed sixteen migrant workers sleeping on or by the tracks near Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
Also Read: Corona Warriors of Delhi, Send 600+ Migrants Home
Cyclone Amphan enters the destruction in 2020
Cyclonic storms swallowed the eastern part of the nation on May 16. Amphan has been noted to be a Herculean tropical cyclone. It leads to significant damage around the Eastern parts of India, particularly in West Bengal, and also in Bangladesh.
Cyclonic storms swallowed the eastern part of the nation on May 16. Amphan has been noted to be a Herculean tropical cyclone. It leads to significant damage around the Eastern parts of India, particularly in West Bengal, and also in Bangladesh.
Also Read: Super Cyclone Amphan May Hit Bengal on Wednesday
The Ganga Delta hasn’t noticed such a strike since Sidr in 2007. It was also considered to be the first super cyclonic storm to have formed in the Bay of Bengal since the 1999 Odisha cyclone.
West Bengal, since 1582, after 1737 and 1833, was now hit by a super cyclone, which is noted to be the third most robust cyclone to have hit this ground of the nation. Surpassing the record held by Cyclone Nargis of 2008, Amphan came out as the costliest cyclone that has ever been recorded in the North Indian Ocean.
Assam Gas and Oil Leak in 2020
Later in May, Assam saw a gas and oil leak on the 27th. It was a petroleum gas and oil leak that happened in Oil India Limited’s Baghjan Oilfield operated by John Energy Pvt Ltd in the Tinsukia district. The reasons that it took place were due to failing of pressure systems in the oil well.
Also Read: Assam Oil Well becomes India’s Chernobyl Disaster
Thousands of people and several villages were evacuated. There have been reported deaths of several aquatic animals in the nearby region. As of June 5, 2020, the gas was leaking uncontrollably. As the situation needed help for inspection, a Singapore-based firm was called for the position who helped the OIL and ONGC teams as well.
Tornado in America
While around 8.5 miles away in America by the end of May, there had been 603 tornadoes (and unconfirmed reports of 209 more). The United States. This year is already declared as the deadliest tornado season since 2011, according to The Weather Network, with 22 killer tornadoes causing 74 deaths to date.
The killing of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter in the US in 2020
Later on May 28, in a video posted on an unconfirmed Facebook page, a speaker wearing Anonymous’s signature Guy Fawkes mask accused the Minneapolis police of having a horrific track record of violence and corruption and further went on to threaten to expose many crimes that they had committed in the past which never saw the light of the day.
Also Read: George Floyd’s last message before died raises many questions on his murder.
This took a toll globally. Which saw people rising from all parts of the world socially. America also saw terrors of riots and protests regarding the killing of George Floyd, which resembled the ones that happened in 1992 in Los Angeles.
Cyclone Nisarga
June came in with Cyclone Nisarga. Nisarga was the most robust cyclone to have struck the Indian state of Maharashtra since 1891 in June. Nisarga eventually weakened as it entered the seashore boundaries. And soon dissipated on June 4.
Also Read: Red Alert In Mumbai, Cyclone ‘Nisarga’ is coming
Other Disasters in 2020
Gujrat saw similar activities in an explosion, which was termed as an industrial accident that took place at the Yashashvi Rasayan Pvt. Ltd., a chemical factory at Dahej. Which took place around noon on June 3, 2020. Reportedly five people were killed, and 57 were injured in the explosion.
Many of these technical issues brought activists to protest for environmental rights. As the reasons behind the happenings, they required it to occur. And now more than ever, it was needed.
From Locust to China-India skirmishes to the EIA Draft, the civilians of India have been at the center of them all.
There were Refugee Crisis in Rohingya, Venezuelan, and in many parts of the world.
Oxford came out with the proportional vaccine for the ongoing Virus. It is currently considered to be one of the world’s most prominent solutions to this worldwide Pandemic.
It is known that around 8,000 people in the UK are currently taking part in advanced human trials for this vaccine. The Oxford team is planning to expand the testings to 4000 people in Brazil and about 2000 in South Africa. And AstraZeneca intends to launch an ambitious trial of 30,000 people in the US.
Also, in India, the officials claimed ICMR to have predicted the “Launch” of the vaccine for public health use the latest by August 15, 2020. Which has led to sparks of fears about its safety and the effectiveness compromising to meet the timeline?
Newzealand recently saw the fallout of its Health Minister David Clark, who resigned on July 2, 2020, after the security’s carelessness at quarantine facilities where the coronavirus was detected just days after the officials announced it had been eliminated from the country.
David Clark was supposed to be an interim health minister until the September election.
Along with CoronaVirus, which became a wrathful Pandemic of 2020, it is continuing to take the lives of many people. The graphs are not stable in many parts of the world. India is in 4th position worldwide.
This Pandemic inevitably brings up questions that were never answered up until now. And yet some remains to be a secret. This is the ‘Time’ that tells us to look at the environment and question our responsibilities over it.
Not only this current Pandemic, but overall be it anywhere in the world, everyone is facing calamities of various proportionalities. There is still no permanent cure to Cancer, and that is an issue as well. Lives of soldiers are still at risk because war can kick in at any point as we even speak of it. ‘Time’ now has become more dangerously demonic. And every individual must play their promising part in it.
Neglecting has been a rendezvous for quite some time. Overseeing the situations has been part and partial of our lives for a very long time. And this hour surely requires us to take extreme measures. Because as it is rightly said, if not ‘Now’ then when?
