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Bio-Diversity, Ecosystem-Health and Their Relation with Pandemic

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Integrated Risk of Pandemic: Covid-19 Impacts, Resilience and Recommendations

Part of the book series: Disaster Resilience and Green Growth ((DRGG))

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Abstract

Along with climate change, another foremost concern that can debilitate our lives and impact humankind as a whole happens to be the spread of Infectious zoonotic diseases. Unfortunately, epidemics arising out of such diseases have been on the rise over time. One of the major causes of the outbreak of these diseases is the degradation of forests due to the loss of biodiversity and the pristine ecosystem. The land use and land cover (LULC) changes within and around the forest due to anthropogenic pressures are disturbing the sustenance and resilient capacity of the ecosystem, resulting in loss of habitat for the animals. This chapter highlights few such concerns like deteriorating man and environment relationship leading to forest degradation; the rising zoonotic disease outbreaks and its relationship with land use and land cover changes; and the role of forest plantation in the degradation of forest ecosystem health. These concerns are further analyzed through a case study of Wayanad district known for its rich evergreen and deciduous forest in the State of Kerala, India. The chapter concludes with the need for recognition of establishing regional priorities with the identification of hot spot areas, where several of the drivers of emerging zoonotic diseases are present, with strengthened afforestation and suitable LULC change policies and surveillance systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India

    Rama Umesh Pandey & Shruti Nair S. Muralee

  2. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, New Delhi, India

    Juhi Sah

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  1. Rama Umesh Pandey
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  2. Shruti Nair S. Muralee
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  3. Juhi Sah
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Correspondence to Rama Umesh Pandey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Manish Kumar Goyal

  2. Cent for Excellenc on Climate Resilience, National Institute of Disaster Managemen, New Delhi, India

    Anil Kumar Gupta

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Pandey, R.U., Muralee, S.N.S., Sah, J. (2020). Bio-Diversity, Ecosystem-Health and Their Relation with Pandemic. In: Goyal, M.K., Gupta, A.K. (eds) Integrated Risk of Pandemic: Covid-19 Impacts, Resilience and Recommendations. Disaster Resilience and Green Growth. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7679-9_3

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