Vision of Life; by Sanjay: BNHS, Birds, Express-Way & Us!

“The future is in the skies.” … Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Further he says…“Look at the stars. It won't fix the economy. It won't stop wars. It won't give you flat abs, or even help you figure out your relationship. But it's important. It helps you to remember that you and your problems are both infinitesimally small and conversely, that you are a piece of an amazing and vast universe.”

Kemal Atatürk, commonly referred to as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, (Well, our History books introduced him to us as Kemal Pasha) was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and founder of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President from 1923 until his death in 1938 & it’s with character like Kemal Pasha, a country with dessert is now one of the best in Middle East making it as bridge between east & west! Today I remembered his words about wild life courtesy a news about seminar by BNHS regarding birds & their passages in sky & I know most people don’t even know long form of BNHS (sorry guys but that’s fact), Bombay Natural History Society, a pan-India wildlife research organization, has been promoting the cause of nature conservation since 1883. Its mission is conservation of nature, primarily biological diversity through action based on research, education and public awareness. Its vision is premier independent scientific organization with a broad based constituency, excelling in the conservation of threatened species and habitats. And I have taken these words from their web site though I know them & let me tell you very few organizations live with the words which they have used as their mission & vision & BNHS is sure one of them, when it comes to nature conservation. And what’s more important about BNHS is they work more on conservation of birds & not just tigers which most other wild or nature conservation organizations thrives for. And reason is simple tiger means attraction of media & tourists means money, name & fame while not many cares much ( read as give a damn) for the birds may it be a eagle or an owl or even a sparrow! And BNHS doesn’t just organizes seminar but backs up researchers, promote the youths to take nature (habitat) conservation as their profession & creates (read as fights) to make every specie (off course other than humans) survive on this planet & let me tell you it’s not an easy job as the enemy is none other than the humans only & powerful ones!

Ok, now in the recent news about a seminar regarding water bodies & the migratory birds I read, that BNHS is taking up task of conducting detailed study about birds passages & their way from their breeding grounds to the base (mean their origin). There are such studies done about birds’ migrations but not much in our sub-continent (read as India) & BNHS believes that such studies will help us in conserving the bird’s habitats as well make their migration journeys easier. For a moment I couldn’t believe that such fools still exists in today’s world & please all the nature lovers, don’t get angry & stop reading my sharing further or start typing me abusing reply for my above comment, keep patience & read further & then you are free to act at your will, is what I will say! So, after reading the complete news I believed such fools does exists which are ready to spend for studying about some unknown (or known, who cares) birds species & how they travel, why they travel, where they travels & then how to make their travel safe! As the news said this study will help we, the humans understand about difficulties in the travels of the birds & we can assist by accommodating this study in our planning (read as development) & thus will make birds journey safe & easy! I was speechless, thoughtless & whatever you call less with the noble thought of BNHS! Because I remembered another news in the very same news-papers as well social media postings about one single road (read as human passage) named Mumbai-Pune Expressway & the death toll it has achieved (humans deaths) along with damage of the vehicles & millions of hours wasted of equal numbers of users of the expressway (humans again) & the studies which has been put by not just govt agencies (they are best at it actually, study) but even by the individuals (read as fools again)who has lost their family members & friends on this passage we call expressway due to sheer negligence or bad planning of the makers i.e. Mai Baap Govt which also supposedly responsible to keep this passage in proper condition to make our journey easy & safe! And I have seen the fate of all such studies about express way & safety measures & yet this passage keeps on taking lives every day of the users (humans) as the system which we call govt ( we also are part of it) considers all such studies a waste & the people who studies & makes reports as fools!

Now tell me all my nature lovers, a system which doesn’t care a bit about passages of the humans for their travels & turns a blind eye on all the studies made to make humans travels safe & easy, can such system will ever care for travels of some birds (many of which are not even worth of eating) & improve its planning to make these birds journey safe & easy by accommodating (read as accepting) outcome i.e. suggestion of some study by researchers of BNHS? This is why I used the term as fools after reading the news & let me clear even if you are thinking I was wrong well, this is sarcastic way of putting your point, this is the way Punekars do it, so I used such tone & language, I am sorry if I have hurt anybodies feelings by calling BNHS as fools! But then issue is not what I call whom or saying sorry, that’s not going to change the scene around us, is what we have to fight. As in continuation of this seminar by BNHS there was one more news, that Maldhok (Great Indian Bastard) named bird’s habitats has been declared as Protected Lands by Green Tribunal as well Environment Ministry. Well, for non nature lovers (though nobody accepts this openly) it’s a big bird & a rare one, as only one fifty numbers of Maldhoks have been left in the country which has human population of nearly one twenty crores, do I need to tell how rare (endangered) Maldhok is now! And let me tell, Maldhok flies (travels) to great distance for their food & the reason of their deaths is power lines, wind mills, mobile towers, high rise structures, oh yes aero plane’s flight pats also & many such. All these structures which are signs (some will say need also) of our development actually becomes hurdle in the path of flying Maldhoks which collides with these structures & lose their lives! And then we build canals, roads, industries, railways which cuts through the grass lands which are home for Maldhoks & if it’s not enough we use land for farming & we build dams sub-emerging thousands of hectors of land (read as home for Maldhok like birds) & what not, so even if a Maldhok is lucky to survive in flight from power lines or wind mills, it doesn’t have a home to breed & feed so end result is death!

And this is the story of not just Maldhok but thousands of species which have wings but that’s all they have as they don’t have hands, legs & a brain which we have to make our travels safe & easy. For thousands of years birds, animals, insects, fish are travelling around this planet happily by using their natural passages on land, in air & in oceans, for their basic needs like food & breeding, which nature has provided them (yes fish too, see the classic animation movie Finding Nemo) & has survived these travels & grown in numbers even when the humans were also around. But mainly in last two centuries, if our so called science & needs (read as greed) which has made our life happy (is it?) but it has made lives of these thousands of species miserable as neither their travel passages are safe nor their homes & the only tag they have got is Endangered! Because, we pollute as well obstruct Sky which is passage of birds, from their one home to another & we don’t spare Oceans & Antarctic from polluting them, making life of fish & other species not just difficult but impossible! And on all such background it’s the efforts for saving birds by studying their life style along-with fish, reptiles, insects and many more, from BNHS like organizations which remains as oasis in the dessert or a cool breeze in hot summer or a warm shelter in snow fall or a dry hut in hail storm, which in actual is the last hope, is all I will say!

I am not saying don’t make development or progress but then while doing all that don’t make BNHS type people fool is only I am appealing. This is a thankless job & there is no money in any thankless job is a bitter fact. If we can’t or don’t support or help BNHS as well its love (read as care) for animals & birds then at least respect their study, is what we can do. And that is possible only by accommodating their studies outcome in our developments in such way that no Sanjay Deshpande will dare to laugh at them as fools! High time for our urban planners to make biodiversity as focus of our planning before it’s too late & not just keeps this aspect of planning on paper but execute it also. As for namesake there will be space for BNHS study’s outcome in our development planning & on ground, as we all know what happens even with illegal structures here in this human-centric country! Unfortunately the birds & fish & snakes can’t build illegal habitats or don’t travel without ticket or by using fake passports, like we are expert at it!

Or else one day will come where God Read as Nature ) will tag we the humans as Endangered & that day there will be no BNHS to make study for our comfort & ease, mind it!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..

https://youtu.be/al0NZ-7Zhq0

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.html