Clarissa Pinkola Estés is an American
poet, Jungian pscyhoanalyst, post-trauma recovery specialist, author and spoken
word artist. Similar to William Carlos Williams
and other poets who worked in the health professions, Estés is a certified
senior Jungian analyst who has practiced clinically for over 45 years. Her
doctorate, from the Union Institute & University, is in ethno-clinical
psychology on the study of social and psychological patterns in cultural and
tribal groups. What Clarissa says about the trees seems literally taken by our
State Govt as on 1st July,
the State Govt has decided to plant 2.5 crore i.e. some 25 million trees all across the State;
indeed a noble drive & nothing wrong with the idea question is how many of
them survive & what about conserving the existing trees? Presently all Govt
machinery is busy in advertizing the plantation drive as well making
arrangements to complete the target of plantation but on same time there was a
news in Bihar State where nearly 250 numbers of Nilgai i.e. Blue Bulls has been shot down
& permission has been given for the same by MOEF i.e. Ministry of Forest
& Environment! On prima fascia these two events or news will look like nothing
common, as plantation of 2.5 crore trees is drive for aforestization undertaken
by Maharashtra State Govt where as killing of some 250 odd numbers of Nilgais’
is decision taken by Central Forest Ministry & that to in State of Bihar, so
what is common factor? Well today its Bihar, tomorrow it will be Maharashtra is
one aspect & second is plantation is indeed good but what is the future of forests
in our State? As ours is much more urbanized State than Bihar where Nilagi
which indeed is a listed wild animal & has become threat to farmers, eating
their crops so they have to shoot it down. In our State every day one or other species
is getting absolute, look at the leopard conflicts in Pune rural area; same is
nearby Tadoba tiger project where attacks of tigers on human beings, living in
the vicinity or project tiger is common.
On
one side we are clapping our backs for rising population of the Tigers but on
other side of the coin, where is the land in form of forests for this increased
population of the tigers? And when I say land for the tigers it means not
just forest i.e. trees & tigers but it means where entire life cycle of
which tiger is at apex is! As tiger alone can’t survive in the woods, it needs
prey in form of deer’s, wild boars, sambhar & many such herbivores
animals. And all these prey animals in turn needs their food which is grass, leaf
of many trees & fruits of trees like Umbar, Jamun & many more & yes
the water bodies too & unpolluted water bodies is important! So all these
grass & trees needs land to grow & serve as food courts for thousands
of such animals. And along with serving as food court to the animals which are
prey for the tiger, these grass lands & trees are homes for thousands of
other species which may not be in lime light like tiger but they too are
equally important links of tiger’s life cycle! As a forest is complete not with
just tiger, deer & trees or grass lands but right from ant house to birds,
insects & smaller animals like hairs as well jackals’, jungle cats, snakes
& many such is what makes any forest a perfect life system.
On this background in our State which
is one of the fastest urbanizing State; major threat is how to make the entire
forest survive & just plantation of trees won’t make replacement for the
fast vanishing forests is what we need to understand. As ideally out of total land available approximately 33% land should be
under forests, where as though no one can be sure but in our State lands under
all kinds of forest isn’t more that 15% is what assumed. This is way below the
ideal norm & this isn’t definitely a creditable thing for our State! And
result of this is major threat to entire biodiversity as every day we are
depriving some or other species from its right to live or even survive! Right
from pollution of natural water resources which causes loss of habitat for fish
& water birds to utilizing every available sq ft of land for purposes like
residential, farm houses or industry, we are reducing entire green cover around
under the name of development. And when it’s not any of such use then we dig
the earth or break the hills for natural resources essential for construction
such as sand, murrum or metal i.e. khadi or stone! Reason may be any but end
result is same i.e. reduction in forest area. This makes every species other
than human being depending on forest either to get extinct or come in human
habitats for its basic needs & get killed by humans under the offense of
encroaching on humans! High time to remind our own self that development is
indeed good but at what cost?
This is where the poor Nilgai’s in Bihar
met their fate of getting gunned down as their only offense was their
population has increased & they couldn’t buy land for their homes neither
can appoint any architect or engineer to build a safe home for themselves, nor
they couldn’t find any project where some developer has build homes for them! I
can’t blame farmers also,
who are victims of these Nilgais as what else you can expect from a poor family
which has raised the crop which is their only source of income & in one
night if heard of some animals is grounding your hard earned crop to zero, you can’t
expect sympathy for those animals by the farmers! Then who is the culprit, if not
Nilgais' or the farmers which have pressurized Govt to gun down the Nilgais' heard?
I think every one of us & the entire system, especially the one which we
call Govt whose job is to see that not only their voters but every living
object in the State deserves their home & well being.
Unfortunately our all policies are made keeping us i.e.
human beings in focus & that makes us most selfish specie! No, I am no
philanthropic or some Saint to make such statement, what I meant is we are foolishly
selfish as we haven’t understood what kind of life we want for our own self
& yet we are making policies thinking we are doing them for our well being!
As imagine a life with luxurious cars, perfect public transport,
good roads, flyovers, IT parks, Malls, Schools, Hospitals & Industries
taking care of our every need! Yes it will be a good life but without any
greenery around or no birds flying in the sky or deer running across the grass
lands & no forest around leave apart a tiger roaming in his kingdom or a
river carrying black water with no vegetation or fish in it; will we still call
it a life? Time has come to define what really good life is for us! I am not
against development but whose job is to balance it properly, is the question I
will ask!
I think planting 2.50 crores trees is a good move but more than
that we should make space available to these trees & agreed every tree is
important, may it be scattered across yet we need to focus on creating pockets
of trees which can be homes to other species in form of forests. At the same
time need is identifying existing such pockets which are in forms of lesser
known forests may it be grass lands or shrubs or wet lands & make policies
to conserve them. In our State hundreds of such places exist, urge every
district governance to enlist them & make a program to conserve them.
Tourism can one sure way to generate money for such programs as well tie up
with corporate companies & make them adopt these pieces of forests. The
only hitch is people don’t believe their money will be used properly for the
cause when Govt is involved so we can use local NGO’s for such conservation
programs. At the same time another important aspect is ever increasing
population of human beings which demands continuously more land for their
survival causing limitation for growth of forests! So a strong need is there to
take birth control program with equal zest as of the plantation drive, which unfortunately
our every Govt has forgotten!
Remember whatever we want to do to
protect as well conserve not only the forests but every single tree &
specie, let’s do it fast as time is running against the forests! Or else today
its poor Nilgai in Bihar we are shooting down for over population, tomorrow god
forgive us, we will have to order shooting down human beings itself for our survival;
again whose survival will be the question & who will shoot whom!
--
Sanjay
Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)
http://visonoflife.blogspot.
http://jivnachadrushtikon.
Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
www.punecorporation.org
Think Green, Think Life
Sanjeevani Dev.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)
http://visonoflife.blogspot.
http://jivnachadrushtikon.
Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
www.punecorporation.org
Think Green, Think Life
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