These days my hands
quaver when I open the newspaper in the morning because the moment I do so, I
read about people dying in some or the other part of the world due to natural
or man-made disasters. The pictures showing the destruction caused, send chill
down my spine. The ghastly images of last year's deluge in Uttarakhand are still fresh in my memory. The recent landslide tragedy in Malin village in Pune is another heart wrecking incident. Families vanished overnight. So many people are still suspected to be
missing or buried. People who have lost their loved ones and livelihood in this
catastrophe, their losses are irrecoverable and beyond imagination, which
cannot be compensated with any sum of money. A few days later I read the real
reasons cited for this tragedy. The major reason why this calamity occurred was
massive deforestation. The hill slopes were flattened and trees were cut down
to develop cultivable plots. A windmill was proposed to be built there to
create ‘green energy’, for which around 28,000 trees were chopped down leading
to loosening of soil. I was shocked to read about the slaughter of 28,000
trees. 28,000 is such a huge number! Don’t such people, before chopping trees
down, realize how long it takes for a sapling to grow into a gargantuan tree?
Wasn’t this carnage of trees, an invitation to nature’s wrath? Unfortunately the people who fell prey to this
tragedy were the innocent and poor masses of the village.
This incident again
raised a doubt about humanity in my mind. I remember this particular
advertisement on television, which showed that a tree wails in pain when it is
attacked by an axe. I was moved to see that advertisement. When innocent trees
and animals are killed mercilessly by man, I feel that God should have blessed
them with the ability of speech like ours, so that man could understand that
they are living beings just like him and experience pain though they are
incapable of expressing it. At the same time, I am also of the opinion that
even if they had the ability to speak, man would have killed them anyway. If he
can impose atrocities on his own kind, then trees and animals are nothing but
inanimate objects for him. Man is so greedy and selfish after all. To quote in
economics parlance, his needs are ‘insatiable and unlimited’.
Most of us believe that
education enlightens a person’s mind and way of thinking in a moral way. But
the harsh fact is that mere education and wealth does not guarantee
sensibility. I came to realize this fact some years back. Sitting at the window of our home, we get an Elysian
view of trees in our complex. It is rejuvenating to watch the trees grow taller
each year and the birds which build nests on them. The cacophony of different
birds, especially in the morning, is music to our ears. There was one such tree
in front of my window which used to bear beautiful white flowers in the months
from November to February. Apparently some civilized and ‘educated’ residents
of my society wanted this tree chopped down because it supposedly obstructed
sunlight or caused termites in their homes. Ultimately the tree was brought
down, even though my parents raised voice against it. I watched the poor tree
as it lay down like a dead soldier on the battlefield. Even today when I look
outside the window, I miss the sight of this once proudly standing tall tree. I
miss the view of the blanket of delicate white flowers. It was like losing a
dear person. A few months back, I noticed that one more tree in my complex was
being axed down following similar complaints. I immediately alerted my father,
who in turn, scolded the person chopping down the tree. Thus that tree was
saved from butchering. I felt happy about my little but significant step
towards saving environment. I marvel at
the number of trees which are being massacred daily by cruel human beings all
over the world in quest of wealth. During rainy season, we often read cases of
big trees collapsing on roads, killing people and damaging property. Well, what
can we expect in the era of concrete jungles?
The next significant
sets of creatures which are slowly disappearing from Earth’s face are animals.
I read an article once which said that polar bears will be extinct by 2050 by
drowning. Beside that article was a picture of a polar bear resting on a little
mass of ice and there was water all around it. Due to fast melting of polar ice
caps, this pretty creature will cease to exist. Similar is the fate of the few
tigers that are left in the world. It is feared that the next generations will
get to see a tiger only in pictures. I am fond of Big Cats and tigers in
particular. The cases of tigers being hunted for their skins and other parts or
elephants being killed for their tusks are failures to save these rare species.
The advertisement of Aircel emphasizing to save tigers, in which a tiger cub
waits for its mother to return to the den, but she is shot by hunters and the
cub’s scared look by the rifle’s sound, still brings tears to my eyes. What
sort of bravery do people find in killing these beautiful creatures? For me, it is a
treat for my eyes to see a fearless tiger wander in the lush green woods. The
recent incidents of a leopard venturing into IIT-B campus or leopards attacking
people are glimpses of human-animal conflict. We can certainly expect them to
retaliate if we deprive them of their homes and game. It is the ever-increasing
human population which compels the destruction of nature.
I watched a documentary
on National Geographic on Tigers of Sundarbans. Sundarbans are home to the
Royal Bengal Tigers. In these mangroves, there were cases of tigers attacking people
when they ventured out to earn their livelihood or tigers killing children at
night. The most surprising thing which I found in that documentary was the
outlook of the villagers. Though they were terrorized by the frequent tiger
attacks, none of them wanted the tigers killed. They, in fact, respected tigers
as they are vehicles of Goddess Durga. I was startled by this particular
statement of a villager: “Baagh hamara rakshak
bhi hai aur bhakshak bhi”, which meant that the villagers considered a
tiger as their protector and predator. So much to learn from these simple,
uneducated people, who value nature’s creations! Listening to that statement,
my respect for Indian mythology grew more than ever, as animals are also
considered divine and are worshipped by people.
As it is said “Every
dark cloud has a silver lining”, there are certain organizations, authorities
and people all over the world, who strive for the very existence of these
valuable species of animals. Establishing national parks and sanctuaries to
protect animals is a significant step towards their conservation. Efforts by
zoologists and wildlife photographers like Simon King of the Big Cat Diary, who
looks after the abandoned big cat cubs and nurtures them in their natural
surroundings, so that their numbers increase, are laudable. Similar initiatives
by late Steve Irwin and his wife Terri Irwin in the form of ‘Wildlife Warriors’ to protect the
endangered wildlife species provides a ray of hope for a secured future of
animals. Such people, I believe, are true saviors of Mother Earth and are close
to nature.
Today almost all
valuable elements of nature are exploited to the maximum to reap financial
benefits, without giving a second thought about the dreadful future which lies
ahead. When we do so, we take the Earth’s resources for granted. We show
disrespect towards them. To give a simple example of the holy river Ganga,
which is contaminated due to harmful industrial effluents or decaying dead
bodies that lie in it to wash off the sins committed and attain heaven. Isn’t
it ironical that we pollute something as pristine as Ganga, which has always
been revered by Gods and is of great significance in our religious texts? The
same Ganga, whose waters Mughal King Akbar offered to his guests, as a mark of
respect and welcome… How can we then be called religious, when our acts are
sacrilegious? With the Government setting aside funds and implementing schemes to
protect rivers, we can expect some improvement in the present egregious
conditions of the rivers. To make these endeavours a success, co-operation from
the masses is required. A drastic change of mindset is required.
Human beings are the
most intelligent creatures created by God. Technological advancement is
necessary for progress of mankind and is one of the ways to make lives better.
But using this gifted intelligence only for developing technologies is not
enough. While working towards betterment of human beings, man should also keep
the serenity of nature in mind. Man should learn to empathize with the elements
of nature. Without trees, animals, rivers, mountains, life is difficult to
imagine. To think selfishly in this context, man will have nothing natural left
around him to enjoy, when he goes on a vacation. He will have to find contentment
probably only in virtual, technology-aided tours, because there will be nothing
exciting in a barren and concrete covered world. It is still not late for man
to mend his ways before nature teaches him a lesson for life. Before more lives
are claimed from somebody else’s undoing…. If we don’t want the movie 2012 to happen for real, immediate and
effective steps are therefore necessary.
