(Image source from: english.alarabiya.net)

While netizens have been flooding their social media platforms sharing memes surrounding the tragedy that 2020 has brought along, this year has done way more damage to humans than anything till date.

The worse part of these hits is the fact that they have been coming in one after the other, without any halts in between. And, we have not even stepped halfway through the year. With the impacts that Covid-19 has brought along on our lives, it is likely that we know only about that halting our lives, when in reality, it is way more than just that.

There have been a number of other tragedies that 2020 has brought along with it that you probably didn’t even know about.

Coronavirus pandemic

It goes without saying that this needs to be mentioned at the top because of the grave impacts it has had on the lives of people. This is possibly the biggest calamity of 2020 that has resulted in the worst human suffering till date.

The outbreak of this pandemic started in Wuhan city in China in December 2019 and was later regarded as a pandemic in March 2020. The virus has infected over 5 million people across the globe and has been responsible for the deaths of over 340,000 people across the world.

US and some countries in Europe were the worst hit. Currently, South American countries, Russia are highlighting as the new epicentres of the virus.

Australian Bushfire

Another tragedy that went on from 2019 till 2020 was the Australian Bush fire that was responsible for wiping out majority of the Australian habitat along with the wildlife in the forests. The uncontrolled fires started back in June of 2019 which kept going on and spreading till the beginning of 2020.

The peaks of the fire happened in January and have since then been extinguished. Over half of the Australian population had been affected directly because of the fires. It destroyed million hectares of land, destroyed buildings and wiped out a lot of the wildlife species in the country.

Indonesian floods

Not many know of this tragedy but the devastating floods that happened in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on January 01 killed over 60 people and made over 400,000 people leave their homes to safeguard themselves.

Over 180 neighbourhoods in the country had been submerged under water, destroying people’s homes and transport networks too. The consistent overnight rains also caused the rivers to overflood, making the water come out and cause further floods in Jakarta. Reports suggest that several of the citizens died of landslides, drowning, hypothermia and electric shocks.

Ukranian Jetliner crash in Iran

Another tragedy that hit the world in 2020 wherein the increased hostilities between US and Iran happened following a US drone killing Iran’s notorious spymaster, Qassem Soleimani. The same was followed by shooting down an Ukranian jetliner that crashed and killed 176 people who were on board. The plane was shot down following the ballistic missile attack that was launched by the troops in Iran on the US troops in Iraq.

The same was done to take revenge and as a form of retaliation for the death of Soleimani.

Communal riots in Delhi, India

Riots are often not considered as something hazardous, when in reality they do way worse. The 2020 Delhi riots consisted of multiple waves of attacks and bloodshed, killing over 50 people during the act. The major impacts of the same were on the Muslim community who were shot and slashed with repeated blows.

Hindu mobs even set them ablaze on fire. The acts of these injustice and the riots also brought along the inaction of the military and the police forces around. The reason behind the riots was because of the fallouts of the newly introduced Citizenship Amendment Act  that was ruled out by the BJP government.

Death of Kobe Bryant

While not many people thought of this as a possibility, the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter in a flight crash came as a shock for the people. The same happened on January 26, 2020. Aside from Bryant and his daughter, 9 other people on board were killed on impact, including the pilot.

The reports suggested that people on board were on the way to the sports academy in the Thousand Oaks in California.

Taal Volcanic eruption

Another destructive impact that was witnessed in 2020 was the gushing out of the hot lava from the Taal volcano in Phillippines that happened on January 12. The sudden eruption of the volcano made people in the nearby villages flee from the spot to protect themselves from the impact.

The eruption didn’t report any kind of immediate impacts or casualties but it also contributed to clouds of ash that flew out to 100 kms around, covering the capital city of Manila. The main airport of the city had to be shut down immediately for its operations, leading to cancellation of the domestic and international flights.

Locust invasion

Another recent impacts that has been witnessed around is the Locust invasion that swarmed around in East Africa. Millions of locusts caused infestation, making it one of the largest in the last few centuries. Not just in parts of Africa, the same has also impacts parts of South Asia, especially in the northwestern part of India.

The food and agricultural organisations in the affected parts have reported that the locust invasion could impact the food security for 25 million people. The scale of the impacts of the invasion was nothing shown every before in the past few decades.

Vishakhapatnam gas leak

Amidst the Covid-19 outbreak, another tragedy hit India with the Vishakhapatnam gas leak which was an industrial hazard that happened at the LG Polymers chemical plant in the outskirts of Vishakhapatnam on May 07.

The tragedy caused the leak of harmful gases that caused casualties and even infiltrated the air around, enhancing risks of exposure and possible death.

These are some of the few tragedies that have hit the world in 2020. There is the super cyclone Amphan that destroyed parts of West Bengal and Odisha and a lot more that people likely don’t even know about. Wondering whether this year has been a curse is an understatement at this point.

By Somapika Dutta