Choice is really ours:

June 08/2011: Wangari Maathai is a name most of us had never heard of till the lady won a Nobel. A citizen and also a former minister of Kenya in Africa, this woman has planted and nourished 10 million trees in her one life time. She was awarded the ultimate honor because of her contribution to protect the environment. Now that is what could be called a true achiever. She comes to mind because of the celebrations all of us saw or heard about from the media last Sunday, 05 June. From Delhi and Bombay right down to Bhubaneswar, celebrities and somewhat known faces were observed peering down at all of us from different pages of newspapers and on all television channels. The energy and gusto with which most were seen planting trees was a bit surprising. More so because all these people were not looking at the scrawny little saplings in their hands being lowered into pits dug specially for the purpose. In reality, everyone in the photos and tv screen was looking up at the lenses that were hovering over and around them. The flash and whirr must surely have been very intoxicating for the smiling faces.

The purpose here is not to hurt the sentiments of those ‘celebrities’ who accepted the invitations of some government department or obscure NGO to come early in the morning to some infrequently used park or free space and plant a tree. They must have asked if they will get water to wash the wet mud off their fingernails at the site. That is fine. Everyone knows how clingy wet mud can be. A thorough rinse is a must for the occasion. While washing those very fair dainty fingers, the water is supposed to trickle down and fall on the tiny sapling which, in most cases, bends and falls flat on the ground. Just because the water was not poured around in a circle near the roots but was lobbed down from the top. Some of the ‘star attractions’ of the Environment Day celebrations do not even give a mere glance back at the tiny life that they are supposed to have planted. More often than not, that very sapling is actually trampled down by the rush of wannabe admirers of those great personalities who come down like a horde of bison on such events and crush any and every thing that dares fall on their path to come close to the One they thought they could never rub shoulders with. On such Days, one can rub not only shoulders but also many other body parts with the One that certain people fantasize about.

Human habitation today is spreading and encroaching on the habitats of every other creature that Nature had created. This is noticed to be happening predominantly in India, more so in Orissa. It is not the elephant herds or spotted cats that are entering our homes or villages and towns. It is us, the wily and intelligent Man, who is entering into their space. Elephants are known to have tracks for hundreds of years that they use to migrate in search of food. They very rarely deviate from those ancient paths. The deviations also are supposed to be within a range of 100 meters either side of that beaten path. Now when we see them crossing the middle of a village, we immediately call for the Forest department officials and the district administration bosses and expect them to remove these hurdles. We demand that the government should pay compensation because of crop and life losses due to elephant trampling. No one ever sits down to assess how and when that village was set up. If done impartially, it would be noticed that the human habitat had moved further into the jungle and upset the normal living areas of wild animals, thereby destroying their very existence. In brief, humans alone want to survive with their domestic animals and in the process exterminate everything else. That is not how Nature had designed this Earth. The world needs everything in it to have a completeness through which humans could survive happily.

Industrialization means destruction of forests.  The setting up of industries is supposed to go hand in hand with what is so very benevolently termed as ‘compensatory’ afforestation. These entrepreneurs hand over some money to the government and think they have done what was expected of them by law. That’s it and no more. Nature, unfortunately, has her own laws. She is not governed by either the Environment minister or the district administrator. A friend once said that for a long time the fishermen had been abusing the oceans. One fine morning a thing called tsunami hit the coastal areas starting from Indonesia to Sudan wiping out mostly those fisher folks’ settlements. Now of course Japan could also be listed. That may be a sampler of Nature’s wrath. Similarly, those pushing for industries and ‘development’ must also realize that it is not compensatory funds that could be embezzled or ‘stars’ who plant trees on special days that will keep Mother Earth from getting into a bad mood. It is true care and concern that alone will save our future generations from imminent destruction. Stop all this nonsense of celebrating this Day and that Day. Time to get truly bothered about the environment has landed on top of our heads. Either we sit up and do things like take note of our ‘carbon footprints’ and reduce where ever possible and take steps to help others. Or condemn our children to die of thirst and scorching heat and severe cold. Choice is really ours. Amen.