Vision of Life; by Sanjay

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way(Click link below)

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For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

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Sunday, May 23, 2021

Biodiversity Day, Humans & Real Estate!

“Biodiversity can't be maintained by protecting a few species in a zoo, or by preserving greenbelts or national parks. To function properly, nature needs more room than that. It can maintain itself, however, without human expense, without zookeepers, park rangers, foresters or gene banks. All it needs is to be left alone”.... Donella Meadows

Donella Hager "Dana" Meadows was an American environmental scientist, educator, and writer. She is best known as lead author of the books The Limits to Growth and Thinking in Systems: a Primer & no wonder she has put threat to biodiversity by none other than we humans in such simple & straight words! Ok, its 22nd May, a day celebrated as World Biodiversity Day & I know many people will say what's big deal it’s one more day just like Wild Life Day, Forest Day or Tiger Day! And as usual celebrities & leaders will post some paintings or images of animals & birds on social media, presently its lockdown in the entire country so there won’t be tree planting named fashion show at govt offices or by our elected members & school kids will be happy as they don’t have to wait for hours in scorching heat to wait for the plantation event's chief guests, that’s all, one more day regarding biodiversity or animals or nature whatever you called has come & gone! And I don’t blame common people as in a country where public health regarding living humans has been neglected to the extent where people are dying because of lack of oxygen & beds who care for some plants or birds or animals or habitats, right? But then on the background of the pandemic the Biodiversity Day's importance is much more as the pandemic has shown (read as taught) many colours of life & one of that is our immunity or say resistance power & here is where days like biodiversity are much much more important than earlier! I know again most people will frown & say one more logic of some crazy environmentalist or nature lover to promote his nature loving funda & I still don’t blame all those who comments such because years after years & decades we have been deceived by our rulers (we ourselves too) about the concept of biodiversity in first place & the result is now suddenly we are talking about conserving it (just talking)!

Before you name or tag me with anything ( franatic or two face or something similar) at least lets understand what biodiversity means in first place as then you can decide its importance or my logic about pandemic & overall its impact on our life as well our duty towards conserving it! Let me ask you ten simple questions & this is for the people who are on up side of forties' is mean forty plus as the current millennium kids born with android & Wi-Fi & which has seen the only biodiversity in the form of landscaped garden may not even understand my questions! Here we go... btw, I am writing my answers below the question, you can compare your answers with them as its experiences or memories which are the answers...

1. Do you remember seeing seasonal flowers like Terada, Zinnia, and Zendu along the roads while you were walking to your school & have you tried to pluck some flowers & carry them to home?

My Ans. I do, I have walked every day of school through such plants & shrubs.

2. Do you remember running behind the butterflies on these flowers & have you ever seen a caterpillar & kept it in a matchbox?

My Ans: I do remember & I have done many times even tried to touch the hairy skin of the caterpillar also with fear that it will get me infected, eventually it didn’t.

3. Have any of you even got a thorn in the feet while playing bare feet on the open fields?

My Ans: I did & every week at least once my Dad has to do the job of removing the thorn from my feet with a needle & trust me it wasn’t a pleasant experience because of the way he used to do it!

4. Have you ever plucked fruits like Jamun, Ber or Mangos (I am not dared to ask fruits like Kawath, Ramfal or Junglee Chiku or Mahua Flower) from the trees on the street of in the fields or tried to get these fruits by pelting stones at them?

My Ans: Yes, I did & in every season there was some different fruits are at offering by the trees around

5. Have you chased group of monkeys (Indian Languor) jumping from one tree to another & destructing the grains or dried food items your mom has kept on the terrace of your home or building?

My Ans: Yes I did & it was always used to be most exciting event of childhood, though the mom used to hate it.

6. Have you played in the pools or ponds & mud after the rains & what sound was the most familiar the after rains?

My Ans: I have played in the rain created pools till my clothes gets colour of the mud & the most wonderful sound I remember after the rains is "Daraw Daraw" of the frog's ribbit!

7. Have you observed the worms & red velvet insects after the rainy season started & in process got late to the school?

My Ans: Yes I have tried to capture every such creature & have been punished by the class teacher for wasting time in such useless things (well that’s common thing with today’s kids too)

8. Have your school taken you to the locations for the trip which was annual event which has farm lands, forests, water bodies & such things?

My Ans: Yes I have been to such school trips & those were the wonderful outings as officially we used to be in all these things like, insects, trees, grass & mud.

9. Have you ever drank water from a natural source directly (no Aqua guards or boiling type thing) such as from a well or a lake or a river?

My Ans: I did as my home had an open well & all our water needs were taken care of from the water we pulled out of it by bucket & later by electric pump.

10. Have you planted at least one tree & observed it growing?

My Ans: Yes I have planted not just but many trees & have observed them growing big & it’s not just because of my business (as a builder) but as an individual too I have planted trees!

If fifty percent of your answers match with mine then you will understand what biodiversity means as you have lived it actually, just you didn’t know it! As biodiversity is like as they tell about Zen, it surrounds you that is why you never know the fact you are actually in it! Well, now about the title of this sharing i.e. how real estate & humans are connected with biodiversity is the question many must be thinking (especially people related to construction industry). Here as usual there are two sides of the coin or say parties, one which will blame everything on real estate & other which will blame everything on nature lovers or so called conservationists! That’s why we need to understand what biodiversity is, as there may be hundreds of definitions of biodiversity but by me biodiversity is verity which nature offers to us at free of cost (and which we throw away) in the form of different life forms & it can be anything from a insect to a bird or a fish & yes even we humans are very much part & parcel of the biodiversity with different colour size & shapes we have among us! So do mind when we say we are to conserve biodiversity then it means making able every form of life survive & not just one specie named humans! And here is where our so called science part & humans comes in the picture as we are the only specie with brains (supposed to be) & we used that brain for our comfort by making ourselves rise above every other species & just the way nature has created biodiversity of life, we created biodiversity of machines! If you don’t believe me then what are things like microchips to aeroplanes, isn’t it just the way nature has insects like ants to biggest blue whale as biodiversity! And we humans only did it & still are making it, under the name of our comfort, our homes, our conservation, this is why real estate matters more regarding biodiversity as this industry creates habitats for a specie named humans & in the process knowingly or unknowingly we had & have been destroying other specie’s homes thus unbalancing the entire biodiversity! And outcome is now we are worried about our immunity & oxygen levels which never was isse earliear. I am not corealting pandemic with biodiversity but somewhere we tilt the balance of nature & in some way its going to trouble us is a simple logic, right? I am not blaming builder ( can’t forget I am also one) but I am appeling entire real estate including clients to look watch for biodiversity aspect of life while you build or buy your homes!

This is exactly the major difference between nature & humans that the nature allows every life to have its space while we humans just think about our own self & this is why we (humans) are solely responsible now for conservation of the biodiversity! And who better than real estate industry can take the lead in this herculean task of undoing the damage done for decades to the biodiversity! I am not referring to some particular builders in some city but every person associated with real estate i.e. construction, all across the globe! Because just do mind while we are digging foundations for our homes, industry, road, dam or bridge then right from first pit, we start damaging the lives of other species by as its in a way encroachment on their homes! So, the responsibility is to balance the damage & making these species survive & that means creating another habitat(home) for them. Imagine the resistance we the humans has to face to relocate few hundreds of another humans when we want to build a dam or a road or an airport & here we are talking about relocating thousands of species including trees & grass also as all of them becomes biodiversity! At the same time if this is conservation by relocating or giving another space for the species there is need of restoration of biodiversity & for that we have to build our homes keeping space for other species too! As that’s why I asked the above questioner because for knowing or living biodiversity you need not have to go the forests or out of city but you can have it just in & around your home, that’s true way of living biodiversity!

And imagine we can make spaces for lifeless things like cars, bikes, generators, transformers, mobile towers, transformer room & many such to keep our created machines biodiversity intact & can spend millions of rupees for the same but we can’t give space for a tree which goes big & can be home for the biodiversity of living species! Again this doesn’t mean don’t buy a car or live without your cell phones but what I meant is while we plan for our homes let’s make a provision for every other living specie including ants & butterflies, that is the true way of celebrating Biodiversity Day! Small things can make big difference such as avoiding cutting existing trees on project’s land, keeping nesting places for birds, providing bird feeders, planting fruit bearing trees (and making them grow), having little natural water body around & retaining natural earth cover as much we can! Real Estate colleagues, we take pride (most of us) in building homes for the humans in best way but while doing that we have a responsibility for other living specie’s homes also. Do mind, a Home is a place where everybody is accommodated with love & care & understating that definition of term “everybody”, is the first step which will decide fate of the Biodiversity & ours too!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying!

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/01/post-lock-down-real-estate-home-buying.html

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

Think Green, Think Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Mother'S Day, Jungle Belles & Hope for Wild Life!

“One individual cannot possibly make a difference, alone. It is individual efforts, collectively, that makes a noticeable difference—all the difference in the world!”...Dr. Jane Goodall

Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 60-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees, Jane’s above words carry so much weight & do mind she was just one woman then, some fifty years back when she decided to go in the wild Africa & study some monkeys which later got famous as Chimpanzees! Indeed there were such crazy women (mothers) & there are still, keeping the hope alive for the wild life which is purest form of the nature! Recently Jungle Belles, an organization started by Aarti & Hemangi, two of city (urban) women & happens to be my forester friends too, for making city women aware as well make trips to the forests & forest means not just tiger projects like Tadoba or Kanha but the local habitats also are in a way wilderness! The task is extremely challenging for two reasons, as first in our country anything when you target keeping exclusively for women (except some Sale i.e. Shopping Festival) then the women (even so called independent ones) has hundred of reasons which includes their office work front to home front (read as kids, in laws, husband & if nothing then the maid on leave) & I do respect every such reason! Second is, when it’s about making time for outing in the nature (forests), exclusively for the women then again the basic question arises, “what’s the need now”?

Yet one must praise Aarti & Hemangi for the efforts they are taking in pushing the concept of exclusive women exposure to the wildlife & in these lockdown times when everyone has been tied in their own concrete jungle they took on the virtual platform to bring the forests to the women at home. And no harm in making some money while doing this, as it’s a good start-up business too, which is the best way to make the concept sustainable! In one such webinar recently which was on the occasion of Mother’s Day, there were five women of different age group, background & profession, were the guests & they shared their journey on the path of nature! The guest ladies were, Vaijayanti Gadgil, who runs a nature group on FB & travels a lot in wilds with few her women friends. There was Samntha Sirohi, an entrepreneur by herself & actress too & there was Swapna Marathe, house wife which has developed liking for wild life photography. There was Shilpa Deshpande, partner in a media giant in Pune (Setu Ads) & has been a forest goer for a while with birding as passion. Lastly there was a young girl Paridhi Jalan, yet a student but understands her role in nature conservation as well wants to take up environment as her career! Amazing lot they were & I deliberately didn’t mentioned their age (not a gentleman thing to do with ladies) but barring Paridhi all are Mother also along with their individual responsibilities that were most important aspect of all the sharing!

Many will say we have already Women’s Day, so what big deal in having a Mother’s Day along, are we not glorifying women a bit more by doing so, as being mother is just one part of womanhood, right? Indeed, “kuch to loag kahenge” (read loag as men) but guys remember what we refer to the nature by; well it, “Mother Nature” right! Do I still need to elaborate the importance of the role as a mother by any woman still? And indeed whatever way each of us grown-up i.e. good or bad (individual’s perception) but it’s the role of mother which gets the credit or debit the way we end up as. Exactly, that’s why role of a woman as a mother in the nature conservation is important as when a man becomes wildlifer or wild life photographer or conservationist, it’s he alone (most of the times) do it & has no other responsibilities & he takes it as his dedication of passion. I am not insulting men by saying so or their passion for nature as even it may be individual effort but it counts, what I am saying is, when a woman (read as mother) takes up nature conservation it’s the entire attitude about the conservation gets changed. As first, the woman has to find time out for nature (forest) & this she has to convince the entire family (and office too) that, the nature is most important aspect for us to survive. Because when a woman who is a mother too, when takes path of forests as her passion then she has capacity to make one family (if not entire world) to follow that path along with her, this is why more mothers should visit forests & this is why Jungle Belles work is important & this is why the episode of sharing of nature outings by these five women is important!

As none of these five women were a world class photographer or an authority on the wild life but that’s not at all required in the first place! Take example of Vajayanti madam, she happily retired from a well to do business & has a settled life with two girls married & a good life with a farm house as second home. But she took the time at hand as her passion & started exploring forests & not just that but is encouraging fellow women to do so & she is a wonderful photographer too, her clicks of birds & other species which are regular visitors at her backyard in the farm house, vouch for her photographic skills! Samantha on the other hand has never been to forests of any such outings till last just one or two year but now she is a regular member of Jungle Belles outings in the nearby habitats of Pune & enjoys it very much. Swapna even being a house wife is pursuing her wild life photography & that’s really wonderful change for her. Shilpa, who is or else busy in figures of balance sheet now speaks about camera shutter speed & exposure type things & is proud to display her passion of birding. And Paridhi, at such yo0ung age speaks about sustainable development & future of earth, an age in which I even didn’t know these terminologies, isn’t all this just wonderful! I think the men (and other family as well work members) must encourage every mother around to spare some time for herself & that too for nature conservation, at least that much we can do!

And all the five women gave one common message, the time they take out for the nature or forest outings is the best time for their own self also & it’s like rejuvenating themselves once again! Indeed even a mother also needs recharging & along with it if she is making the earth a better place to live, I think that can be the best thing for the forests & thousands of species! Thanks Jungle Belles & all five lady participants to make the Mother’s Day special by their sharing about nature & sure many more mothers will be joining them on this path ahead, as that’s how the Hope is alive for the Nature!

I am happy that Team Sanjeevani is proudly associated with Jungle Belles & Wild Life Conservation!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying!

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/01/post-lock-down-real-estate-home-buying.html

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

Think Green, Think Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

Sunday, May 2, 2021

One More Tigress Killed; How Many More?

“You may kill for yourselves, and your mates,

and your cubs as they need, and you can;
But kill not for pleasure of killing, and
SEVEN TIMES NEVER KILL MAN.”... Rudyard Kipling

Well, after a long I get to use the great man’s quote & how apt they are especially when the topic is about killing! By the way Rudyard Kipling is the one who actually made Indian Forests known to the outer world by epic Mowgli & his Jungle Book. The entire Jungle Book has been wrote on the backdrop of forests of Central India (Kanha & Pench both claims it) & no wonder Kipling knows language of the wild better than any human! His above words are said not by a human but by Baghira the leopard who has shown mentor of Mowgli a human kid among wild animals & this is how Baghira teaches Mowgli rules of living in the forests. Jungle Book has been wrote some fifty years back & then also the war was on between humans & the animals though the wisdom animals has then also the humans haven’t learnt it even now, is the sad part & is main problem for wild life conservation! Never kill for pleasure of the killing & don’t kill a Man ever (seven times means remember it forever) & till today may it be a tiger or a snake or a leopard, unless they are threatened for their life (may it be hunting or hunger in some case accidentally) no animal on their own kills a human, definitely not for trading human body parts!

What Kipling wrote are the rules followed by the wild animals individually & by the pack but humans, they make their own rules which are followed at individual’s will as seldom our rules become laws & more seldom these laws are respected, especially when other species are involved! Yes my sharing is about (again & again) a recent tiger’s rather specifically about a tigress’s even more specifically about a tigress pregnant with four cubs not death but brutal killing by none other than humans! Many will say what big difference is whether it’s a tiger or tigress, pregnant or non pregnant which got killed (hunted, poached)! And I am not surprised as the society (it includes each of us) which is careless or ignorant about a pandemic & killing it millions of the humans itself, to expect sensitivity from such specie about detailing of an animal like a tiger which lives in caves & hunts for living, is daydreaming or my own foolishness, I know that by now! Yet let me tell you there are fools like me which cares for other animals too & more for a tiger as in entire country there are 1350 million humans but only some 3500 odd tigers & that makes death of one tigress which would have given birth to four tigers making it five tigers equalizing to death of nearly 19,28, 571 humans, sorry for the figures but check it by yourself if I am wrong, even one digit here & there yet its death of 1,92,857 humans (though I am right with figures)! And for such thing with humans, we have a lockdown for more than six month in entire country & the Supreme Court on its own intervenes & orders governments to look in the matter! Again people will laugh at me for such foolish comparison but time will tell who is real fool is all those laughing faces I want to tell as the day when there is no tiger in the country will seal our fate with nature! Though thankfully as I said I am not the only fool, there are few left so there is hope for tigers & if you are surprised why I am referring only tigers well its apex of the nature’s chain in the forests & if a tiger (or a leopard or wolf) survives in any habitat means the entire wild life chain is secure!

Oh, ok, sorry, as the whole my hue & cry is outcome of news I came across on FB post by die hard wild lifer friend Sarosh Lodhi who is founder member of wildlife group named CLAW on FB! It has an image showing partly burnt carcass of a tigress supported by details that the tigress was using a cave near town Pandharkawada, Yeotmal district in Maharashtra & a forest guard found on his routine patrolling that the tigress has been dead in the cave. As usual there was all sorts of claims & reclaims, funniest is the statements by local officers (with due respect to their funky position), just see the news cutting along, the officer wasn’t sure she was pregnant or not, killed or died naturally, when the news also said the claws of tigress were cut-off from the body & were missing as well there was fire at the mouth of the cave & there were clear marks of stabbing on tigress as well around her neck! Agreed post-mortem report is a must but a tigress was seen around that cave over a month by locals & sure forest guards does knows to identify a pregnant tigress is she is carrying four cubs in her belly & yet we provided no protection to her as it wasn’t a protected forest so human interference was bound to be there, isn’t it? As well it’s not just about safety of the tigress, it’s about people living around also as thankfully the case is of clear poaching from visual evidence itself! But it could have been an accident also as if the tigress by mistake has attacked some innocent human for e.g. some firewood collecting lady or cow dung collecting small kid going too close to the cave or stumbled upon the tigress itself on her way back from waterhole & got killed; I wouldn’t blame the angry husband or father of deceased going to hunt down the tigress, which eventually has been the same outcome except selling her parts, which has happened in the reality!

I have full sympathy for the deceased tigress, for the people who live around such tigress & I have part sympathy for the forest people which works outside Project Tiger & yet have to deal with tigers! I am saying part sympathy is because one forest dept is always given step-child treatment from the “Mai Baap” govt especially other than blue eyed project tiger staffers! Imagine you are a forest guard & your job is to protect not just a tiger from the humans but to protect humans also from the tigers & you have neither authority nor power (or machinery) to do both, what will you do? It’s not some stray-dog you are monitoring, it’s a tigress that too pregnant, she has to feed herself as well cubs in her belly & you don’t have even a gun to protect yourself or any such thing nor you have enough man power to surround her hiding place & not allow any person to gone half a kilometre near that place & this is in day time! At night time when you can't see anything & you know a tigress can see clearly in darkness & you can’t use event light so not to disturb the animal as well you don’t know the poacher’s numbers or weapons they are equipped with & both the tiger as well the poachers are ready attack on you if you come in their respective tasks, in such case how many of us will do the job of protecting the tigress with full dedication? And then about the prosecution part as the said poachers are captured is also a news, I appeal to all the honorable judicial system, please mind the statistics of numbers of tigers vs. numbers of humans I gave above while you write the verdict for the poachers which killed a tigress with four cubs & use that logic for every wild animals killing by the humans, change the laws if you can’t go beyond what’s been written in your wrote law books!

I know many wild life lovers will despise me for my logic about the forest dept but that won’t change the reality, this is why I said part sympathy for the forest dept as this situation they themselves have landed in as why they can’t demand (read as top bosses) enough man-power with proper machinery like guns or protection shields (just example) type things to every forest personnel & on other side we discuss things like satellite surveillance on Project Tiger forests, pathetic lot we are! As imagine a single guard (van-rakshak) living among the natives some of which are the poachers and are keen to half of the villagers, how you expect a single guard going against entire village? As well, it’s a small place (most of bastis or settlements) around forests & poaching even that of wild boar can’t go unnoticed, how come you allow that & doesn’t inform to your superiors in time to avoid further damage like the tigress got injured by the trap for wild boars, is what statement of one of the respective forest officer! At the same time a tigress doesn’t start living in some cave overnight, right? She must have been made this particular cave as her habitat over at least a period of few months or been seen or used those parts of the forest & many other must be knowing her existence including forest dept. What kind of awareness programs has been conducted among the native residents regarding the tigress is something I will like to know about! Also to all the so called NGO’s, again keeping due respect, what we all were (and are) doing except visiting sanctuaries & clicking snaps & giving guards & guides tee-shirts & caps (food packets also) but what about making people know there lives a tigress in this respective cave & she needs to be protected from us same as your lives needs to be protected from her; where we were till the tigress got killed? So many questions which we ask only after a tiger gets killed & wrap them like we wrap our fancy cameras when we are back from the forest trip & again asks same questions only when next tiger gets killed just the way we open the camera bag for next forest trip! Guys, keep asking the questions at-least & keep shouting over such every wild animal’s killing the way tiger keeps roaring in the forest to make the forest knows that there exists a tiger in it or else you never know which will be the last roar of the last tiger, till then god bless the tigers!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying!

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/01/post-lock-down-real-estate-home-buying.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way(Click link below)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

Think Green, Think Life