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It has been more than 3 decades since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Ukraine), which led to the evacuation of 350,000 people and the creation of a 4,700 km2 exclusion zone between Ukraine and Belarus.
The studies carried out at the time indicated that, due to radioactivity, the area was going to be uninhabitable for more than 20,000 years, which would make the Chernobyl exclusion zone a desert for life.
Thirty years later after numerous studies, it has been seen that in Chernobyl there is a diverse and abundant animal community, even a large number of threatened species at national and European level have chosen as a refuge in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
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The clearest example of all this is that of Przewalski's horses, of which the last wild specimen was observed in the Gobi desert in 1969, and the population in captivity did not go through a very positive situation either.
Today the population of this equine breed reaches 2,000 individuals, several hundred live freely in the steppes of Asia and different areas of Europe, including, although strangely, in the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
The most current census, carried out in 2018, revealed that some 150 animals live in the Ukrainian part of the Exclusion Zone, grouping between 10 and 12 family herds, in addition to two groups of males and some solitary individuals.
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The same occurs in other areas affected by radioactive contamination, such as the accident at the Fukushima plant (Japan) or by atomic bomb tests, such as on the Pacific atolls, which also maintain a high diversity of fauna.
From this we can deduce at least two things, that nature is much more resilient than we thought, especially if we remove the human being from the equation and that we have no idea of the long-term effects of radioactivity on beings. alive.
Either way, it is still excellent news, especially for Ukrainians.
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