Deforestation and Malaria Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Deforestation and Malaria - Essay Example Necessity is the mother of invention. A saying that is proved over the years many times. Each time man was in need of some thing there was a gadget or a service that made his life comfortable. A statement that could strongly challenge the one said above is â€Å"The greed of man for more things has always led to his own destruction.† This desire for luxury has disturbed the chemistry between man and nature. Another important aspect is that of Health. Health happens to be the most important asset for man and that is something which is mostly neglected. These human activities that disturb the balance in nature are in some or the other way responsible for many Health related issues. Formal Definitions: Deforestation and Malaria The phenomena of clearing forests for acquiring land for various purposes like pasture, urban usage or water logged land is known as Deforestation. (Williams M, 2006) Deforestation is the antonym of Reforestation, a practice that increases the forest area. Deforestation has a detrimental effect on the Environment. The clearing of major portions of forest cover had led to a reduced bio-diversity. This activity of removal of forest cover has a direct effect on the environment’s climate and geography. The direct causes for deforestation are livestock herding and forest fires. (Williams, M, 2006) Along with it, a few indirect causes like Edge effect and habitat fragmentation also contribute for deforestation. The rate at which the amount of forest cover (both tropical rain forests and tropical dry forests) is decreasing is quite high. This is an alarming sign and directly points to possible loss of bio-diversity. Harmful effects of deforestation include reduction in amount of water in soil, moisture in atmosphere, land slides, precipitation reduction and flash flooding. (Williams, M, 2006) The only reason for all these effects is the excessive usage of resources by human beings to satisfy their desires. Deforestation on a Global scale Malaria is counted as one of the dreadful diseases as it affects around 300 million people on an average every year and consumes the lives of around 3 million people. (whqlibdoc.who.org, 2005) It is a vector borne disease caused by mosquito biting. It is quite common in tropical and sub tropical regions. A protozoan named plasmodium is responsible for this disease. (Cox F, 2002)The groups of plasmodium parasites that affect human beings are plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium vivax, plasmodium ovale, plasmodium malariee and Knowles. All these are known as malarial parasites. They are transmitted into human body through female anopheles mosquito. Whenever they bite human beings, this parasite is injected into the body and it eats the red blood cells causing nausea, fever, illness and in severe cases coma and death. Symptoms of this disease include shivering, joint pains, vomiting and fever. (Cox F 2002) The breeding place for mosquitoes is water logging areas. Areas where the temperatur e is quite high and water is stagnated for a long period of time, the spreading of this disease is common. Mosquito repellents and mosquito nets can be used to get protection from this disease.