“If you are feeling down & depressed in the morning,
spend some time in nature & if you are feeling fresh & cheerful in the
morning, then also spend some time in the nature”...
Well, pertaining to my lock-down psychic outcome is
these philosophic words though the sharing is not about any lock-down related
thing, yet the subject is such that no aspect of life can escape from it, yes,
environment! Well, once again 5th June is here & for those who
wonder what it is for, no its not birth date or date of demise of some prominent
figure (Jayanti or Punyatithi) so it’s not a dry day (sorry for sarcasm, can’t
help it). World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated on 5th June
every year, for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of our environment. First held in 1974, it has been a flagship campaign for
raising awareness on emerging from environmental issues to marine pollution, human overpopulation, and global warming, to sustainable
consumption and wildlife crime. World
Environment Day has grown to become a global platform for public outreach, with
participation from over 143 countries annually. Each year, WED has a new theme
that major corporations, NGOs, communities, governments and all celebrities
worldwide adopt to advocate environmental causes. The World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5, Friday this year
(2020). The theme for this year’s World Environment Day is “Celebrate
Biodiversity”. Irony is while I started this write-up with WED just 48
hours ahead, outside of my window nature is at its best destructive mood with Nisarga
named cyclone washing (bashing is right word) the western part of the State
& coastal areas. As well on my forester friends group my friend posted a
news about one female elephant in some southern State which happened to be
pregnant has died due to allegedly fed fire crackers filled pineapple & she
asked how the humans can behave so evil!
Well,
my answer was most men (humans) are evil but a few displays it, others are
afraid of society & so called law so the evilness is hidden but given a
chance its surfaces or else we wouldn’t have needed laws, courts, prisons &
police type things which no other species in the world needs for survival of
their own! As just last year a clip of two medical students (sorry but that too
was from southern States) tortured a stray dog & threw it from top floor of
their building! Wow, what an act of daring & bravery as they posted that
video proudly on their friend’s whats-ap groups!
Exactly this is
where I always laugh at celebration of WED & please pardon me as I don’t
want to make fun of all the die-hard environmentalists as well nature lovers
but no other species is needed to celebrate Environment or Wild Life Day type
things because they don’t do evil things against other species which we the
humans do & then we celebrate a Day with the theme of Conserving
Biodiversity, great, isnt it! And then why against other species, we the
humans do evilest things with our own species so who cares about some elephant
or a dog! Ok, now about the scene of Environment on Biodiversity front in
Country as well around us. Just few months back I attended a seminar regarding biodiversity
in which many senior names were present & one of them Dr S D Mahajan, a
well known Botanist from Pune was telling he actually used to swim in the river
(Mutha) some fifty years back & they drank water directly from the river in
Pune city! Tell this to any of today’s generation (in thirties or forties)
& the will look at you like they have seen a man from time travel machine.
And I won’t blame them as I remember Pune when I came to this city nearly
thirty plus years back & that time there was no summer to this city, is
what I wrote to my mom, who used to live in Vidarbha! And now look at the rivers
flowing through the city today & try walking on any April/May month’s noon,
on the streets of this city! And then very recently in a webinar (there are
many going on around) grave issue of wild life conservation has been put
forward by senior wild life officers that no other govt dept (read as entire
system) listens to forest officers or cares about forests & its
conservations!
Ok,
still not convinced here is something more about our attitude towards diversity.
In last one year nearly eighty tigers & more than three hundred leopards
& one hundred plus wild elephants has been died because of humans. And this
is just about big animals; I am not even counting snakes, monkeys, deer, jackals,
birds, turtles & hundreds of other species which die every day in thousands
of numbers in road accidents, poaching, just fun or hunting as food. And yes
there is one more way we kill other species silently & like a slow poison
& that is making them homeless i.e. by de-forestation. This we do for
building our homes, roads, airports, industries, mines & as well by
polluting the life sources of other species like natural water bodies, air
& destroying their food chain so eventually the specie dies as it has
nothing left to eat or drink or breath! And still we celebrate WED, wonderful
specie we the humans are, aren’t we!
What all this indicates
friends; it indicates we don’t care a damn about biodiversity except just announcing
it as some day’s theme, accept it now! Indeed there are some people or say
group of people who genuinely trying to save environment by every way but it’s
like trying to extinguish forest fire by pouring few buckets of water on it as
such extensive is the damage already done & being done every day that
unless every single human being joins hands for saving biodiversity the
destruction won’t stop. And first step is control our own population as that’s the
biggest threat to other species. We the humans are growing in numbers like
cancer cells in the body named earth, killing (read as eating) every other species
may it be a fish or a mammal or a bird or even a tree! And this is something on
which no leader of any nation utters a word but he or she speaks about saving
biodiversity, may be that’s what called as politics. And joke is this human
population cancer not only kills other species but is killing silently our own
selves also, just like tell of a Snake & Frogs in Panchatantra. To kill his
rival the frog king invites a snake in the well they are residing & after killing
the rival frog one by one the snake kills & eat the king frog as well his
family also! Same way while the human population today may be killing other species
& acquiring their homes (read as habitats) what after all the species are
gone (read as conquered) , whom we will eat or encroach up on then?
At the
same time all those who condemns act like killing that pregnant elephant or villagers
beating up some leopard or wild boars are being bombed by homemade bombs, any
murder is wrong yet just try living in a mud hut with thatched grass roof in
your one acre crop field & some elephant heard just demolishes your hut with
the crop in single night & you have to run for your life, what you will do
to that elephant? Ask this question to yourself & answer genuinely to
yourself & then try saving biodiversity or calling killing an elephant as evil
act! Here is the difference between the humans & animal as we can think, so
our responsibility is more , an elephant attacks or encroaches humans homes or
fields only because some humans has made it homeless & foodless & the elephant
cant create new home or food supply system for itself but a human can!
Now
even within the humans there are some which are humans & some (read as
most) animal humans means they doesn’t yet understood meaning of being a human,
so we can’t expect them being responsible towards other species or humans also!
Here is where law, awareness, system etc comes in picture i.e. to make animal
humans more human! Problem is not with
these animal humans, problem is with so called rulers or human humans as our
constitution only says, “Of the people, by the people & for the people”
(here obviously people is humans) which actually must be, “of the humans, by
the humans & for the biodiversity”! As then only we can think really for
other species & make our every policy by which both we the humans &
other species will survive & grow happily!
I repeat I am not
anti-development as we need homes, we need food & we need better life but
then so does needs a frog, a fish, a bird, an elephant & a tiger, isn’t it?
I think high time this should be the theme of WED not for one year but one
decade as then only there is some hope for survival of biodiversity! Or else
there will be World Environment Day celebrations but no environment, is the
writing on wall!
--
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..
Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at
Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)
Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way(Click link below)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
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www.punecorporation.org
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