Ignominy of Humanity

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.