Kathmandu, June 4 -- Over 172 million infections and nearly 4 million lives later, the exact origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is still a matter of debate. But scientists have a pretty good guess.

Early studies pointed to bats as the source of the2019 novel coronavirusand epidemiologists say the virus could have jumped to anintermediary species like the pangolin, which is a delicacy in certain parts of China, and on to humans.

There is now a better understanding of howthe rise of zoonotic diseases is associated with the destruction of nature and the flourishing illegal wildlife trade.This could be how the cross-species transmission of SARS-CoV-2 took place in late 2019, but there is little political will to stop the destruction of nature....