Many people who are critiques of crime against nature, the COVID 19 pandemic indeed is a blessing in disguise. For some time, when the pandemic first emerges, the world witnessed the worst panicky life. Almost all major countries take up immediate measures to fight the spread of the virus. Some countries imposed total lockdown crippling all forms of normalcy. Forget about the multinational companies, even those living on daily wages were forced to stop live. Television, newspaper, social media, traditional media – all discuss and relay issues related to COVID 19 pandemic. A new word call ‘social distancing’ which perhaps is an antithesis to sociology has been made mandatory by many governments running different countries across the world. The majority of the world was put too near standstill. When human activities were put to hold for a few months, an air of freedom seems to be blowing on the lap of the mother earth. Environmentalists say they had never seen River Ganga as clean as they see during the lockdown. It was just around thirty days that such comments were heard. Imagine the condition of the river had the lockdown been a little longer.
Back here in Imphal, the most polluted river or perhaps the dirtiest in the entire country, sees clean water flowing these days. Time and again some concern ministers or bureaucrats or social workers had initiated several work programmes or campaigns to keep the Nambul river clean and free from pollution. None of the efforts has so far been succeeded in making the River that runs through the middle of the Imphal city pollution free river. The dream about making Nambul another river Thames of the United Kingdom never comes true besides all effort.
For over sixty days, Manipur has been put into partial lockdown without allowing the Manipur’s commercial hubs Khwairamband keithel, Paona, and Thangal market to open. Almost all commercial activities in these commercial hubs have been put to halt for around three months by now and because of this the one time most crowded commercial hubs that gave headache to municipality workers in cleaning the garbage have been somehow relieved. Because, people have stopped visiting the commercial zone, garbage products from this section of the area have been reduced to almost zero levels. The Nambul river that flows next to the commercial hubs has been a dumping zone of the garbage produced from Khwairamband area and that is perhaps the reason for the failure in every effort to make Nambul – free from pollution. Maybe those concerned departments especially assigned to use all their skill and wisdom by paying huge amounts of salary are not efficient enough to find a solution to deliver what they have been assigned for. But then nature is not so cruel, when some concern humans were left helpless in rendering their service to the environment, it showed some form of extra natural phenomenon that sometimes took the entire human race to surprise. The COVID pandemic may be term as another phenomenon leaving aside the scientific theory.
Perhaps it is because of the COVID 19 pandemic that the long-cherished desires of Imphalites to see Nambul river clean comes true. Part and partial credit should be given to the state Environmental department. The enthusiasm of the environmental department to show their credentials in rendering their services is well noted when the department organized a boat rally for media persons at the Nambul river. It was not merely a boat ride rally but was a rally to create awareness to the people on the importance of keeping the Nambul river clean and tidy.
Nature had done its part, it is now up to the people particularly those working in the environment sector to formulate a lasting mechanism of keeping Nambul river another Thames of the United Kingdom.
