By  — Shyamal Sinha

The first COVID-19 case in India was detected on January 30, the same day that WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern. India went into lockdown almost two months later.

With 1,327 cases and six fatalities in four months, the trajectory of COVID-19 in the cold desert region of Ladakh validates the view that people living at altitudes of 3,000 metres and above are less likely to get infected compared to those in lowland areas, say experts here.

On June 15, the average testing rate in India was 4,972 per million. Ladakh had the highest testing rate at 38,170 per million, followed by Goa (27,568 per million), Jammu and Kashmir (20,400 per million), and Delhi (14,693 per million).

The recovery rate of the disease in the union territory is 82 per cent, substantially higher than the national average of 64.24 per cent. While 1,067 have recovered, there are 254 active cases, according to the Directorate of Health Services on Tuesday. All are under medical supervision in hospitals, corona care centres or in home isolation and none are on ventilator.

“The good news and the most surprising finding was the timely recovery of all infected patients despite the fact that majority of the patients belong to an area where environmental silicosis is prevalent which impairs lung defence mechanism,” said Tsering Norboo, retired physician and MD of the Ladakh Institute of Prevention. This, he said, led researchers to look at the epidemiology of COVID-19 in other high altitude regions such as Lhasa in Tibet and Wuhan in China.

A recent study, “Does the pathogenesis of SAR-CoV-2 virus decrease at high-altitude?’, by researchers at the University Institute of Cardiology and Respirology of Quebec, Canada, backed the finding. “The finding of COVID-19 pandemic appears to indicate a decrease of prevalence and impact of SARS-Cov -2 infection in populations living at high altitude over 3000m. The result possibly could relate to both physiological and environmental factors,” it said.

High altitude environment, it added, is characterised by dry climate, drastic change in temperature between day and night, and high ultraviolet radiation at heights may act as a sanitiser. UV rays are capable of producing alterations in the molecular bonds of the DNA and RNA (the genetic material of the viruses). “All together, these factors may dramatically reduce ‘survival’ capacity of the virus at high altitude and its virulence. Furthermore, due to lower density of the air and the greater distance between molecules at high altitude, the size of the airborne virus inoculum must be smaller than at sea level,” the study said.

Norboo added that the findings vindicated the belief that studies of high altitude natives, its environment and high altitude adaptation process can give clues to understanding the disease and therefore its treatment. “The recovery rate in Ladakh is very good. The patients we receive have mild symptoms and are not serious ones. Also, we do not have any patient who is on a ventilator,” said Tashi Thinlas, consultant physician at Leh’s SNM Hospital.

Of the recovery rate of 82 per cent, Leh district counts for 64 per cent and Kargil district 94 per cent. Of the six deaths, three have taken place in Kargil and three in Leh. The total number of samples tested till July 28 is 17,976. Since January 31, 73,016 people were screened at airport, intra district and inter district check points.

According to Phuntsog Angchuk, director, Health, Ladakh, the first confirmed positive case of COVID-19 in was reported on February 28 in Chushot Gongma village. It was also the first containment zone in the country. “In the initial stages, the patients were all pilgrims returning from Iran. Up to mid- May, only 45 positive cases were reported out of the total sampling of about 3,700. The surge occurred due to the heavy influx of local residents, students and labourers from different parts of the country,” he said.

Though the incidence of the disease is less compared to many other states and union territories in the country – India’s virus tally has mounted to 14,83,156 with 33,425 deaths — there are challenges aplenty. Thinlas said there is a shortage of manpower and quarantine facilities in his hospital.

“We never thought that this virus will hit Ladakh but it came so quickly. There are many administrative lapses,” he said. There is one testing lab in Chushot Gongma. A second one in DIHAR, Leh, is yet to start functioning fully.

“At present, the DIHAR laboratory is not fully functional. Analysis and trials are going on. It’s almost set up and will be functional within a week,” said Sonam Angmo, in-charge of the Chushot lab. Ladakh has also been sending samples to NCDC, Delhi, and PGI Chandigarh to ease the load.

Discussing the challenges ahead, she said winters will be tough. Laboratories need heating facilities as temperatures drop down to below freezing point and machines are very sensitive. According to Norboo, this is the most opportune time for Ladakh to establish a state of the art Molecular Biology Laboratory with the support of the Indian Council of Medical Research and links with institutes such as Pune’s National Institute of Virology and Delhi’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology.

In the longer term, what is required are investments in health infrastructure, ensuring continuity of regular health services, and improving health emergency preparedness. India will have to cautiously adjust spending, attract industrial investments to spur growth, and address rising unemployment. But over the next year, India can expect to remain in crisis mode

It is believed that Ravan travelled widely in his Pushpak Viman, and the aviation routes could tell us more about Lanka’s geopolitical reach and influence.

रामायणम्, Rāmāyaṇam  is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Mahābhārata. Along with the Mahābhārata, it forms the Hindu Itihasa.

The epic, traditionally ascribed to the Maharishi Valmiki, narrates the life of Rama, the legendary prince of the Kosala Kingdom. It follows his fourteen-year exile to the forest by his father King Dasharatha, on request of his step-mother Kaikeyi, his travels across forests in India with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, the kidnapping of his wife by Ravana, the great king of Lanka, resulting in a war with him, and Ram’s eventual return to Ayodhya to be crowned king. This is the culmination point of the epic. It is the most sacred book, and is read by millions of people every year.

Sri Lanka tourism promotes an elaborate Ramayan trail stretching from Munneswaram to Trincomalee, Ella to Colombo. The nation’s first satellite launched last year is named ‘Ravana-1’.

Contrast this with India, where a masjid stood on Lord Ram’s birthplace for centuries and despite overwhelming evidence presented in court, ‘seculars’ stayed in denial. Any proposal to enhance the philosophical understanding of Ramayan, or studying Ram’s journey and alliances, or building tourism circuits based on the epic is mocked and met with disdain and protests.

While Sri Lanka unabashedly embraces its past, identity and legacy, Hindus in the homeland of their faith are repeatedly shamed and censored from honouring their defining epic because it would apparently be communal and upset minorities.

Indians are supposed to accept without compelling scientific proof the existence of Jesus or Mohammed, but a Ram or a Krishna cannot break the glass ceiling of mythology.

Even intellectual curiosity into Hindu epics is discouraged. In 2015, a paper presented on Ravan’s Pushpak Viman at the Indian Science Congress in Mumbai met with massive outrage. Five years later, a neighbouring government has proudly launched a full-scale study on the subject.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was incessantly mocked when in 2014 he said cosmetic surgery originated in India. Four years later, a Columbia University’s Inving Medical Centre study traced the roots of cosmetic and reconstructive procedures to ancient India more than 2,500 years ago.

“During the 6th Century BCE, an Indian physician named Sushruta €” widely regarded in India as the ‘father of surgery’ €” wrote one of the world’s earliest works on medicine and surgery,” the paper said. “The Sushruta Samhita documented the etiology of more than 1,100 diseases, the use of hundreds of medicinal plants, and instructions for performing scores of surgical procedures, including three types of skin grafts and reconstruction of the nose.”

The sheer genius of the British colonial project to ruin homegrown Indian knowledge and education and replace it with one that produces clerical, self-loathing brown sahibs is evident even today. Jawaharlal Nehru continued with this colonial system, outsourcing the massacre of history to Left intellectuals.

While Sri Lanka reconstructs its past by studying its tradition and trade routes mentioned in ancient texts like Ramayan and Valahassa Jataka, India is still to fix its education system, distortions of history, and broken pride in its glorious roots.

While India is in denial on Ram, Lanka proudly flaunts the extraordinary antagonist, Ravan, about whom writer Amish Tripathi says: “He is different from your ordinary villain. Just because he is so scholarly. He is a brilliant musician, a brilliant poet, a good dancer, he is exceptionally well read, he is a very good administrator. Which makes him a deep, complex man, and fascinating to write about. Even Ravan’s violence was scholarly.”

The name Ramayana means “Rama” + “Aayana”, where as Rama is name of Lord or God and Aayana means Path or Way. The literal meaning of the name is “the journey of Rāma” or “the career of Rāma” or in other words path or way taken or chosen by Rama during the human life cycle form at earth, during Treta Yuga (869000 years ago) in Jambudweep(Java Plum)/Aryavart/India.

Sri Lanka, wisely and justifiably, is delving into its rich trade, maritime traditions, and now even aerial routes to construct a robust national mythology. Vinod Moonesinghe, in his piece, outlines the scope of that knowledge from the story of Yakkhinis of Jataka Tales who captured and married shipwrecked merchants to Sinbad the Sailor to Tamil Nadu and Odisha connections to ship links with China and Vietnam.

These strengthen the story of Ravan’s regional influence. India, with a much richer maritime history and way bigger geopolitical influence in the Indian Ocean, don’t even give space to the likes of Rajendra Chola.

Sri Lanka has done what India should have long ago. An expansive study of Lord Ram’s travels and alliances is long overdue. But before that, we need to shed our apologist attitude towards our own past and roots.

According to Hindu tradition, Rama is an incarnation (Avatar) of god Vishnu. The main purpose of this incarnation is to demonstrate the righteous path (dharma) for all living creatures on earth.