CAN MAN EVER WIN OVER MOSQUITOES

According to the findings of the University of Alaska mosquitoes are living in this world for 226 million years. Average life span of mosquito is 42-56 days for female and 10 days for male. On 20th August 1897 Ross discovered in a laboratory experiment in Secunderabad the role of Anopheles mosquitoes in transmitting malaria parasites. Since then man has found that mosquitoes are the carriers of highest number of diseases in the world. Mosquitoes are the deadliest creature on earth killing over seven lakh people every year. Brazil, Indonesia, Malasia and Thailand have highest mosquitoe species in the world. About 4,00,000 deaths take place every year in Sub-Saharan Africa due to mosquitoes. According to WHO,  in 2020 there were 241 millions cases of malaria across the world. As per Gates Foundation the cost of eradicating malaria from the world by 2040 will cost between $90 billion and $120 billion. The estimated number of malaria deaths in the world in 2020 was 6,27,000. There are some positives of  mosquitoes too. They are the food source for many fishes, frogs and birds. Mosquitoes also contribute significantly for  maintaining ecosystem by doing the pollination of innumerable plants on the earth.

The whole world is spending huge sums every year to eradicate mosquitoes from the globe. Man, however could not win against this tiny creatures. According to John R. Platt on Scientific American, global expenditure to prevent extinction of all life forms would be about $80 billion. Scientists have estimated that there are 8.7 millions of life species in the world including animals, birds, fishes, plants etc, of which 1.2 millions have been identified and described so far. Despite all the best effort and spending huge sums 15,000 of these are extinced so far.

We may now find a nature's order of preservation and destruction. We cannot overcome this order. For instance, on the one hand, while spending huge sum and deploying all available resources we could do nothing to eradicate mosquitoes and, on the other hand, despite applying all resources and spending huge amount of money we could not save large number of life species from extinction. Let us know the fact that Mother Nature will certainly interfere when man cross the limit in hurting the nature. The recent example itself is more than enough to prove this. When Nature had warned man through man to prevent atmospheric pollution,  man did not listen to it. Finally Mother Nature sent a micro virus in the name of Covid 19 to do the work. Man immediately obeyed it. As per the report by M/s I Khan, D Shah and S S Shah published in International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, atmospheric pollution has come down considerably in many cities of the world, water quality has improved all over the world and above all NASA has noticed ozone layer concentration above the earth around the world.

Since our war against mosquitoes turn to be a war against the nature, a win may be near impossible.

K V George