“We have not inherited the earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children.†– Lester Brown
When you come to think of it, I highly doubt that when Earth came into being around 4.5 billion years ago, she would have expected that a life form which has lived for roughly a blink of an eye on this planet could actually turn it back into a big ball of lava. Okay, I admit that this sounds too much of an exaggeration but the fact of the matter is, that the planet is heading to a point of no return and if nothing major happens soon (and by major I mean something that actually knocks sense into the minds of people and most importantly the honourable President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald John Trump) then it won’t be long before we make this place unliveable not just for us but also for the innocent flora and fauna.
Any form of life that came into existence on the Earth survived when it was able to develop intricate relationships with the ecosystem. All those who were able to adapt and collaborate survived the brunt of nature. The key words ‘adapt’ and ‘collaborate’ have however been transformed into something entirely different after the advent of human kind. To be clear, I do not mean that the entire human race is in the path of destroying the very planet that we live in but when taken into consideration the humungous population that is in fact oblivious or rather ignorant of the damages that it is causing, branding the entire race as the culprit is something I don’t think is worth shying upon. Tracing back time to the moment when our primates’ ancestors first evolved into a species that was highly intelligent and smart, nature was something that was both cherished and feared. Homo sapiens were more concerned in surviving the odds of nature, trying to prevent being preyed by the animals of the wild and at the same time forming communities and societal structures so that a symbiotic relationship between the nature and humans could be developed. Soon from being hunter gatherers we moved to a stage where unlike nomads that we were, we settled down and became pastoralists. This was the stage, I believe where humans finally realised the Pandora’s box that nature was and how if utilised efficiently it could solve almost all our woes.
Animals began being domesticated for tilling the land, to provide us with milk and meat, to protect us and warn us from danger. They were the primitive version of energy sucking, smoke pumping, waste littering modern machines that we consider one of the many great achievements of modernity (with only a minor difference that they didn’t do any of the aforementioned things).
The world as we know it today is defined by how humans who are at the top of the ecological pyramid dictate their terms over it. From being a species that shaped itself and its activities around the availability of resources provided by nature, humans owing to the highly developed brain and the never-ending desire of wanting more changed the way nature worked. But is it all that bad? Is the world that big of a mess? The answer is both a Yes and a No. The world is a messy place and there is no doubt that we have the biggest hand (or rather the only hand) in this. The human population has nearly doubled in the last 50 years with a marginal growth in forested areas and agricultural produce. Let’s not broaden our scope way too much and shrink it down to India itself.
The population of India is around 1.33 billion which is thrice the size of the sector that supports its food requirements. I don’t think there is even a need to mention the negative impacts that follow it.
In order to sustain this huge population not just with food, but also with healthcare and housing space and the ever-growing energy demands, desperate steps are taken which more often than not keep short term benefits in mind. What this results in are deeper more pronounced consequences.
A slight ray of hope sieves through the murky clouds of oxides of sulphur and nitrogen in the Niyamgiri hills, in the state of Odisha. The hills are a scenic green covered with lush green forests that would leave your jaw grazing over the soft dew laden grass as you venture into them. With deep gorges and crystal-clear streams cascading down the hills forming small ponds and lakes of sparkling water, the hills are a sight to behold. But in all this the most amusing thing is that despite human population being present there, there has been no harm done to the nature. The hills boast high and pristine and are ferociously guarded by the Dongria Kondh tribe (in order to save them from the capitalist predators) to which the Niyamgiri hills are a home. The people here are touchstone of human nature collaboration. The Dongria Kondh cultivate the fertile slopes of the Niyamgiri hills and harvest the produce, but this is not what makes the Dongria Kondh special. What makes the tribe so different is that they worship the Niyamgiri hills.
The Dongria Kondh call the Niyamgiri Hills as Niyam Raja. They believe that the right that they have to cultivate the hills has been conferred upon them by Niyam Raja and that they are his royal descendants.
The hills provide them with everything that they need for their sustenance from food, to medicines and shelter.
But the collaboration with their surroundings does not end here.
The hills are rich in bauxite which traps rainwater in it and releases it slowly over a long period of time.
This is the reason why the area has over a hundred perennial streams and rivers, the most famous of them being Vamshadhara river. The water from these meandering rivers and streams is not just critical for the population of low-lying areas and plain for irrigation and drinking which are extremely prone to droughts but is equally if not more important for the Dongria tribe who have for hundreds of years helped in maintaining the rich diversity of the hills which are also home to tigers, bears, leopards, squirrels etc.
Water as I mentioned just a while back is undoubtedly the most important substance for our survival. This is why agencies like NASA and ISRO are so determined to find water in places like the moon and mars as it is a prerequisite to make home in a different planet, which by the way is not far-fetched, considering the way we are progressing as a civilisation. History is a witness that even the oldest of civilisations like the Indus Valley Civilisation as the name suggests emerged beside the bank of river Indus. Rivers like Ganga and Yamuna are not just habitats for innumerous aquatic species but also have a deep religious significance.
They are seen as goddesses who not only purge the soul from all the sins (you can take one dip in them and find yourself relieved of all the hundreds of slaps you gave to your wife or the thousand time you ogled a girl in the street or tried to rub yourself against a woman in the crowd or in a public transport, of all cold blooded murders or of the numerous thefts that you might have done) but also help you breakaway from the cycle of death and rebirth.
This special status however does not stop people from dumping faeces, garbage, bathing in the river with soap, covering it with industrial waste to turn them from the beautiful clear rivers that they are up and around their origin to black, slimy and pungent smelling sewers by the time they enter the capital of the country.
The sorry state of rivers makes one question about the ignorance and hypocrisy that is evident in our race where we will constantly point out the pollution of the rivers and problems, we face due to it but at the same time don’t even think once before rolling down the window of our cars and throwing a packet of empty potato chips into them while crossing a bridge. Rivers for time immemorial have fulfilled our needs of drinking, bathing and irrigating. Without tampering with the natural flow of the rivers, humans had built a synergy between themselves and the water bodies. They knew that the monsoonal floods were like a necessary evil. It might cost them life and property but at the same time would increase the fertility of their soil and help yield a better produce. Rivers became a medium for fishing thus adding fish to the cuisine. They also helped in transporting logs and people resulting in shorter travelling time and feasibility. This however was long back in the past.
Today rivers have transformed into mere dumping grounds whose cleaning becomes a manifesto election after election.
The same applies for glaciers as well, except for the fact that majority of the politicians either don’t know about them or like every other thing- don’t care. Regardless, glaciers are the source of many perennial rivers that we have in the country and just like them they too are in a constant state of decline. In an article by Kalyan Ray titled, ‘Snowline recedes on the Himalayas by 400 mts’ published in the Deccan Herald, he says, “In the 1980s, the snow line was visible at 4,900 mt at the end of summer. It has now moved up to 5,200 mt in 2006 marking loss of ice accumulation in the lower heights.†Similarly, while talking about Uttarakhand in his article, ‘Dev Bhumi’, published in the book titled ‘Himalaya’, Bill Atkins talks about the worrisome state of the Gangotri glacier and says,
“The Gangotri glacier is melting at an alarming rate. When I first went there at twenty years ago it was receding at the rate of 30 ft a year; today the ice is retreating at 30 meters a year. By the year 2050, the glacier may not exist.â€
Around a century or so ago glaciers like Gangotri and Yamunotri were not as accessible as they are at present, but with increasing tourism, these holy sites have seen a significant rise in their average temperature leading to a faster melting of these glaciers. Furthermore, as more and more people visit these sites, the amount of waste that is being disposed here has also risen considerably, so much that it can even be found near the mouth of the rivers.
The irony of the matter is that the places that we worship are one of the most polluted ones and it is due to none other than the dear and beloved pilgrims and worshippers for whom these spots are no less than a visit to heaven (only they don’t stay as one once people leave).
What is far more rattling than the drying up of rivers due to melting of glaciers is the monumental increase in the sea water level. Since most of the forests near the costal areas have been cut down under the tag of development and urbanisation our coasts are highly vulnerable to any increase in the sea levels especially areas like Mumbai and Kolkata. India has already started to witness the consequences of rising sea levels with areas like Sundarban and Majauli slowly submerging and causing distress to not just the human inhabitants but also to the plants and animals that live there.
From the very start, forests had been the whole and soul for our survival. From shelter to food and fodder everything that we needed was a product of forests and they were revered for this, something that can be still seen in the tribes like the Dongria Kondh. Even today in the era of modernity, we still try and head back to our roots; the forests, when we need solace from the surmounting noise, pollution and mayhem of cities. It is the sound of the chirping birds and the gurgling streams, the wind ruffling the leaves and the raindrops falling on them, the petrichor emanating from the soil laden with grass that calm the soul filtering all other worries.
Apart from the aesthetic beauty of sunrays sieving through thick canopy of towering deodars and painting the world around in mesmerising golden while dewdrops drop down the grass blades, forests also provide for water catchment areas both on and below the surface of the earth. As they are one of the key agents in water cycle, forests also help in regulating the surface temperature thus keep global warming in check. But their advantages don’t just stop here. Forests and specifically rainforests like Amazon are considered as the lungs of the planet that help maintain a constant level of atmospheric gases via the process of photosynthesis. Forests even in mythologies have been viewed as places of penance where sages would come and perform strict austerities in order to attain moksha. These were greatly respected and worshipped by sages and commons alike. However with the advent of industrialisation and modernity forests became the first victims of human greed to control everything that it could set its eyes upon.
Hectares and hectares of forests were cut down or burnt to build industries that would rain ashes and pump thick plumes of smoke into the atmosphere. Forests however didn’t stop doing what they had always done- they kept providing, even if that meant certain death for them.
Even as I pen all this down, my mind races back to questions like- Have we actually progressed as a society? Or in the race of trying to get better we have lost the one thing that connected us with our roots. Has our desire to control everything led us to believe that we can challenge nature and conquer it? From peacefully coexisting with the nature, when and why did we being to assume that we are the overlords who can manipulate it in whichever way we want. We might be the most intelligent of species on this planet but that doesn’t make us invincible. Nature holds the power of both creation and destruction and we are no more than a twig in its hand that it can snap into two with a slight flick of its wrist. It is high time that our kind starts to look into itself and see the myriad ways in which we are exploiting nature in the name of modernisation and development. Our race is digging its own grave by ignoring the signs of an impending apocalypse. What is needed to be understood is that nature never really needed human beings. It has always been self sufficient be it in the past, the present or the future. It is us who are sucking into its resources. Until we get it into our heads that it is humans who are dependent on nature and not the vice-versa we will continue to head down the path of further isolating ourselves from the one thing that has kept us alive for this long.