Peace Education- Need of the Time

‘Peace is its own reward’ 

    One of the quotes by Mahatma Gandhi says it all. His words should make a lot of sense for those who have lost it. But why peace in a society which is not on cooperative terms? Why today we feel the urge to live in a peaceful society? Why do we feel that apart from academic education, peace education is the need of the hour? The answer to this question is rightly given by Dalai Lama- ‘World Peace begins with inner peace.’

    I believe in being a pacifist. I would choose to walk away than rather pacify my desire to argue. It is not always advisable to prove oneself right through a battle. We should be selective in choosing our battles because being at peace is better than being right. In today’s modern world or rather call ultra modern world, every other person, every other country is trying to prove to be superior either by hook or by crook. Let’s brood over it- Is it necessary? If not, then what is needed? The answer to this is ‘PEACE

EDUCATION’.

PEACE EDUCATION; 

we can call it a source of gathering values, skills, personality traits, knowledge and our composure and behavior to maintain brotherhood, harmony, fraternity with oneself, our countrymen, our nature, our environment and our world. We should not forget that we are GLOBAL CITIZENS. 

    Our lives today have taken a huge leap post scientific, technological, cultural and industrial development. But we have paid a huge price for it. It has become a rat race to prove one’s superiority. With this ambition creeps in the evil to demolish the peace which binds us together. We humans are the most superior race. We have the ability to learn, think and understand. The main irony that lies here is that when we know what is right or wrong for us, but we are unable to differentiate between serenity and disruption. 

    What do we fight for? Is it worth a fight? THINK THINK THINK. War is not the only solution to end all conflicts. This can be learnt from the great epic ‘MAHABHARATA’. The Pandavas and Kauravas fought against each other but both the sides suffered irrecoverable losses. Same with the two world wars which was witnessed by many. Though being the victors the countries lost. This loss couldn’t be mended. We must therefore understand that there is the path of PEACE & SERENITY.

    We Indians do have a history of conflicts over religious issues. We die to fight for our religions but fail to understand that all religions have the same belief towards peace. The Bhagvad Gita says, “Free from all thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’- that man finds inner peace.” 

    “Serenity is not freedom from the storm but peace amidst the storm”, says the Bible.

The Holy Quran mentions similar views, 

“Humanity is but single brotherhood, make peace with your brethren”.

The righteous quote, from Guru Granth Sahib

“The giver of peace is eternally blissful”. 

So, when all the holy books insist on the same, who are we to defy it, who has given us the authority to nullify it through our thoughts and actions. Try to be better choosers than being a loser. 

    We have a very big lesson to learn from the recent pandemic of COVID-19. All nations are fighting against a common enemy, with their maximum grit, but this war is without any weapons. We have warriors but they are bound to their duty to serve the society- the COVID-19 warriors. They are serving the true purpose of humanity. The doctors, the nurses, the policemen, the medical staff and all those who are the soldiers of this unarmed army; their selfless gestures spread the message of what humans are really capable of. Selfless are the deeds of the Corona warriors! But there are few who are beyond repair, so forget about them, lets see if they can be peace makers. In our country we witnessed the fly past by our defense forces, Wow what a way to show one’s gratitude! Splendid are their gestures! Defence forces are meant for wars but this gesture is and should be an eye opener as to what peace education is all about.

    Don’t wage the war. Stop worrying, it will not help you to solve your future problems, but will only add to the misery and mar your today’s peace. Remember to choose peace over worry. Wake up!. It’s a wake up call. Better late than never. Its not too late to mend our ways. Open your arms, open your heart, embrace peace, accept everyone, spread love, be human, spread humanity. Don’t forget we are the travelers, not owners of this planet. So why quarrel and bawl over things which we will never and cannot carry to our heavenly abode. We don’t even know what will be our abode- heaven or hell?

    The best way to start is, “SMILE”. Many say it’s the longest word, it carries you far coz there is a ‘Mile’ in it. Moreover, the same thing has been said by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mother Teresa-

“Peace begins with a smile.”

Smile, Love, Accept, Cooperate, Unite, Understand, Befriend, Try to recollect all the positive words. Ignite the lamp of peace not the dynamite of destruction. Show your grit through peace and not war.

Impart the knowledge of peace that’s much needed today. People will fight for their greed, but we

know our need that’s -peace. Peace is blissful. Great are those who embrace peace over argument. To conclude I would like to mention the words penned by the great scientist Albert Einstein- 

“Peace cannot be kept by force, it can be achieved by understanding.”

By,

Ridhhi Rajendra Gurav

Faculty

Sri Ma Bal Niketan High School, Thane

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

“The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their

revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future”

                                        

                                                                                                        -Marya Manes

Introduction

    Sustainable development represents an opportunity to construct a new approach, and the success of these efforts has powerful implications for issues of peace and security

    In 1992, the Rio Declaration,presented at UNCED said that "peace, development and environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible. In the Brundtland Report, sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

Elements of sustainable development

    Sustainable livelihood, sustainable economic growth, living in harmony with nature, and appropriate technology are the core elements of sustainable development. Social sustainability can harbor gender equality, development of people, communities, and cultures to help achieve a reasonable and fairly distributed quality of life, education, health care across the globe. 

Environment and Economic Sustainability

    Environment and Economy are independent and need each other. Hence development that ignores its impact on the environment will destroy the environment that sustains life forms. It can be achieved by environment conservation, investment in renewable energy, saving water, and innovation in sustainable construction and architecture. Economic Sustainability focuses on equal economic growth that generates a wealth of all, without harming the environment. It helps in eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions.

Integration of Scientific and Traditional knowledge

    If the people can contribute their local resources and practices into the process of change, the development becomes not only sustainable but also get accelerated. Traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge are combinedly called Community knowledge. To achieve Sustainability in many areas, it requires community knowledge also. Indigenous knowledge is also a potential source for the conservation of biodiversity.It has been recognized in India through initiatives such as National Ayush Mission (NAM) and the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL).

Global Issues related to Sustainable Development

    As a global problem, climate change requires a global solution which leads to a rise in the sea level, despite mounting efforts over the past 20 years, the loss of the world’s biodiversity continues. Deforestation, desertification, drought, flood, soil erosion which was threatening our nature. Recently, Australia's bushfire crisis, the loss here is almost hard to fathom. A staggering 1.25 billion animals are now estimated dead. Therefore tackling climate change and fostering sustainable

development are two mutually reinforcing issues.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

    United Nations (UN) has launched the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and SDG.This universal, integrated, and transformative agenda aims to spur actions that will end poverty and build a more sustainable world over the next 15 years. There are 17 goals and 164 specific targets to be achieved by 2030. Reaching the goals requires action on all fronts from government, businesses, civil society and people everywhere all have a role to play. But SDG's are not legally binding.

Roadblocks to Global Initiatives

    Resolving the ‘sovereignty' by the member of states with growing environmental interdependence and the need for concerted action. The major hurdle World facing is the North-South divide as the North world has just over 20% of the world's energy. On the other hand, the South comprising a developing nation still struggling to provide the basic need for its population. Being nobody's property like the ocean, space, and Antarctica may act as a disincentive for protection.

Regional Initiatives

    Regional mechanisms are effective means for addressing transboundary issues such as atmospheric pollution and pollution of shared rivers and water bodies, which nations are unable to solve on their own. Regional mechanisms have higher chances of success. As the European Union (EU) enforced certain environmental principles regionally. SAARC adopted Environment Action Plan (1997) Convention on Cooperation on Environment has been ratified by all member states and entered into force in 2013.

Community Initiatives

    A significant initiative comes directly from the community level for sustainable development IUCN, 1948 has provided a secretariat for several important international conventions. Biodiversity Act, 2002 is almost completely built on inputs from a network of NGOs working across the country. Similarly, the Chipko movement and Save the Silent Valley movements were results of community efforts.

Progress and Challenges Ahead

Progress

    As per the Sustainable Development Goals Report, 2019, Extreme poverty has declined considerably. By Immunization the under -5 mortality rate fell by 49% between 2000 and 2017. The vast majority of the world's population now has access to electricity. 186 parties have ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change. Marine protected areas are doubled since 2010. Many countries are making concerted efforts to address illegal fishing. More than 70 countries in the European Union now have more than 300 policies and instruments supporting sustainable consumption and production.

Challenges

    As per the Sustainable Development Goals Report, 2019, Extreme poverty declined from 36% in 1990 to 8.6% in 2018 but the pace of poverty reduction is starting to decelerate as the world struggles to respond to entrenched deprivation. Extreme poverty is three times higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Tremendous improvements in gender parity in education but problems like low representation in

legislatures, violence against women continues. The natural environment is deteriorating at an alarming rate like ocean acidification, global warming, extinction of several species, and local degradation.

Conclusion

    The process of sustainable development must be feasible and operational, it is important to establish a common focus that can integrate the outlook and efforts of various participants in development, worldwide realizing the diversity, in terms of geography, society, economics, level of science and education standards. Developed countries need to limit the usage of fossil fuel and plastics and to encourage public and private investment that aligns with the SDGs. All stakeholders must work together to conserve, restore, and sustainably use natural resources. The much deeper, faster, and more ambitious response is needed to unleash the social and societal norms and policies that are supporting the current, unsustainable status quo. A far more optimistic future is still attainable only by drastically changing development policies, incentives, and actions.

References

1. Hák, T., Janoušková, S. and Moldan, B., 2016. Sustainable Development Goals: A need

for relevant indicators. Ecological Indicators, 60, pp.565-573.

2. Holden, E., Linnerud, K. and Banister, D., 2017. The imperatives of sustainable

development. Sustainable Development, 25(3), pp.213-226.

3. ICSU, I., 2016. Review of the Sustainable Development Goals: the science perspective.

Paris: International Council for Science (ICSU); 2015.

4. Keeble, B.R., 1988. The Brundtland report:‘Our common future’. Medicine and War,

4(1), pp.17-25.

5. NCERT Class 11, Economics book.

By,

Affra Thusneem S

Tamilnadu

Moral of Corona Outbreak – Is Technology superior or nature!

There is absolutely no need to explain anything about this deadly virus anymore now. Even the people who don't used to watch news, knows about this pandemic and the damage caused by it. The number of positive cases are increasing and with that the number of deaths too. It’s the high time for us to think about what we have to actually do in order to overcome from this. But before getting the solutions of this epidemic, don’t you think it’s also important to know the reasons behind this COVID-19. We all have never given the care about the nature but now it’s a high time for us to think about the causes of this epidemic. After the occurrence of this epidemic, one thing is sure and that is the realization about the failure of technology at one point. We all used to think that technology is the most superior thing and nothing can defeat it. But we forgot that it’s the man who had made technology and nature has made man. Hence, how can we even imagine of technology to be more superior than the nature?

This outbreak of Corona had given us the detailed information about the limit of the usage of technology and the vast and endless limit of the nature. Before this lockdown, we all were so busy in our life, we all were engaged in our daily lives so much that we actually never paid attention to our surroundings, our environment, this beautiful nature and so many other things. All we used to do is the exploitation of the mother earth. We had used her resources without paying anything back to her and paying her doesn’t have anything to do with money because in this selfish world, only nature is the place where you can get enough happiness and peace  accompanied by the resources and even after getting all these valuable things, it doesn’t need anything more from us, just love and care. But this is so unfortunate that we fail even to give this back to her. We all would have seen the animals now roaming on roads and not just domestic animals but wild animals too. We all would have seen the decrease in the level of pollution. We have also got that news of the famous rivers like Ganga, Yamuna and others are getting cleaned now. What one can infer from all of these facts? These facts just show us that it’s just we and our selfish nature which harms the nature and is responsible for the extinction of the other living beings. The technology which we have developed or the technologies which we want to develop only revolves around the reason of fulfilling our demands. It has nothing to do any betterment of the nature and as a result, we can see the world leading towards the dark side.

The recent technologies have got failed in controlling this fearful deadly coronavirus. Everyone around the world is just realizing that this is the revenge which nature is taking from us. But why this situation came? Why this time came when nature which is known for it’s calmness, it’s beauty, it’s loving nature has become this scary for the whole world? The simplest answer to this complicated situational question is no one else but just we. We should have realized now that how much we exploit the nature. When we are inside our house, then the nature and all other living beings are living their life happily and peacefully. This shows that only we, human beings are the ultimate reason of all the disastrous situations which nature has to face. This staying in the house also give us the same feeling as that of the birds which get this feeling of being trapped when we put them in cage just for our happiness and for the showcase. It’s very well said by the great people that we get back the things what we do to others. In the similar way, we are getting the torture what we have given to the nature. The topic which we are discussing here and the question which we are asking here has got it’s answer undoubtedly. We used to think that technology can control all the ups and downs happening in this world. We thought nothing can conquer the technological advances and innovation happening day by day in this world. We are planning to go to Mars and to establishing the proof of the existence of life there but now when this epidemic has come, we can feel that our overconfidence over the technology is not worthy. We have understood that our innovative mind as technology are not that capable of controlling the nature. These realizations are acting as the face to face meet up with the reality. The recent technological advancements like Artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, are of no use as per now. These things may get turned into very useful things but still we should keep one thing in mind and that is nature can never be  conquered by anything and by anyone. And if we try to control it then we should definitely be ready to face the situations like this in future too.

 

We get hurt if the ant bite us, we get the pain when our blood bleeds but this is very astonishing that we get the pleasure in hurting others and harming others. We get the taste when we eat those innocent animals after killing them brutally. This shows how inhumane we are! This shows that we have become so self centred that we don’t think about others. We just realize that only our life is valuable and all others have no right to live in this world. We cut the trees, we hunt the animals, we misuse the water, we exploit the land and soil. These activities and our selfish actions are the reasons of the disastrous phenomenon like deforestation, extinction of animals, water scarcity, land and soil pollution. Our assumption of thinking that technology is superior than nature is not just wrong but also dangerous as if we go on thinking like this and if this will be our approach towards the nature then nothing can protect the world from getting end fierce fully. We can’t see the tears in the eyes of our mother then how can we tolerate the tears in   eyes of our mother earth. When we can’t torture our mother then how can we exploit and torture our mother earth. If one sit and think with the open mind then can definitely understand that we can’t live without the love which nature shower on us. We can’t live without the resources of our mother earth. We can’t live without the pure air, water and the fertile land. These things make us feel the importance of nature in our life. We have got immense things from the nature. We are surviving here because of the grace of nature but now our greedy nature is only becoming the enemy in the path of our existing on the earth.

Nature never disturb us, it’s we who disturb nature. It’s we who disturb other living beings. It’s we who disturb the ecological balance of the nature. It’s we who disturb the natural balance and when we disturb it , then nothing can defend us from the fall. We have seen the intense love of nature but if we will continue exploiting the nature then we should be ready to face the horrible wrath of the nature too. We should do the invention which should be beneficial for everyone and not just for us. We should keep the nature at the top in our priority list while doing the discovery. We should be conscious that our innovation should be innovative in all the aspects with less or no harm to the nature. We should realize and understand our responsibilities towards the nature. We should also feel that we are answerable to the society ,country as well as to the whole world. We have borrowed this nature and beautiful planet from our ancestors and we should not forget the fact that we have to even give this nature to our coming future generations. If we give them the beautiful nature then they can live their life without any problems as well as they will learn the lesson of giving their best to make this planet more beautiful. We should not ignore the fact that the children learn the lessons by seeing their parents. They do what their parents do, in the same way, if we exploit this beautiful nature then our future generation will learn the same thing and hence this bad practice will go on passing from one generation to the other.

So, the final conclusion one can draw from the current situation is to love and care about the nature.

Author

Aakriti Sharma

BMSCW

                        

 

 

CORONA OUTBREAK Moral-Is technology superior or nature?

A Small micron sized sub microscopic organism which as mutated and killed about 1.7 lakh people all over the world and as infected 24lakh people and counting. So what led to the downfall of humanity in front of a small virus like corona, was it the technology which failed to warn us or the nature just wanted to give a taste of what we were doing to her?

Since the first report of corona virus in November last year, technology as always been our side in hep us fight the pandemic As China initiated its response to the virus, it leaned on its strong technology sector and specifically artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and technology to track and fight the pandemic while tech leaders, including Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei and more accelerated their company's healthcare initiatives. A variety of new devices and methodologies have been developed and implemented to aid in the fight against Coronavirus with the hope that they will give an edge over the disease to contain, and eventually eliminate it.

Here are some of the ways technology is helping the humanity to tackle the spread of virus.

1. AI to identify, track and forecast outbreaks

The better we can track the virus, the better we can fight it. By analysing news reports, social media platforms, and government documents, AI can learn to detect an outbreak. Tracking infectious disease risks by using AI is exactly the service Canadian start up BlueDot provides. In fact, the BlueDot’s AI warned of the threat several days before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization issued their public warnings. Artificial intelligence Company Infer vision launched a coronavirus AI solution that helps front-line healthcare workers detect and monitor the disease efficiently. Imaging departments in healthcare facilities are being taxed with the increased workload created by the virus.

The above picture gives the location of the COVID-19 patients in the neighbourhood and helps the person who isn’t infected to stay away from that place. It also gives an insight to the government on where to take strict actions and seal down the place, so that they can contain the spread of the virus.

2. Drones deliver medical supplies

One of the safest and fastest ways to get medical supplies where they need to go during a disease outbreak is with drone delivery. Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles are nowadays used as major transportation of essential goods though it was planned by amazon to deliver the goods, interestingly it is now that the usage of drones have increases even in developing countries like India. The operator can adjust the location of the customer and send a drone while he is siting about 10km away (distance increases with different drones).

3. ROBOTS

Multi-axle automated machines or robots are used widely in every place you name it. In this pandemic they are helping the COVID-19 warriors a lot, for an instance a police man can use a BOT as a surveillance system and warning machine and help people stay in their homes, it can also be used to deliver essential supplies to the victims who are home quarantined. The BOT’s also equip thermal sensors so that they can check the body temperature of the person who is infected with the virus

4. Chatbots

Amidst the spread of the virus, there is another virus which spreads faster than corona, you guessed it right, rumors. To stop the spread of the rumors and fake information from social media or sometimes humorously called “WhatsApp university”, the government have created chatbots which can help people verify the information and stop spreading fake news

As we saw some of the ways countries are using technology to tackle this virus, the same tech betrayed us while it spread in the late December 2019. How here’s the story.

While U.S government funded Wuhan lab to find a vaccine for HIV-AIDS. The lab which is not tech equipped used the corona virus to find the vaccine, since corona virus as similar genome to that of the HIV virus it was used. There is a lot of news regarding the spread from this lab due to leak in the lab and how they couldn’t contain the virus. Though the institute, located quite close to the Wuhan wet market, is China's first biosafety level IV lab, the US state department had warned in 2018 about a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory, the report claims. The intern in question allegedly first infected her boyfriend, after which it meandered its way to the wet-market where it did eventually proliferate. Though the virus spread was later told to the world by china in January, technologically sound country like china could have alerted the world regarding this. They misused the technology and help themselves dig their own grave by telling it was just a normal issue.

    Technology is the main reason for the upliftment of the civilization it also a major drawback for the downfall of the humanity.

Is technology superior or nature?

The humanity always used technology in the worst possible way to destroy the rock it is living on. Humans think they are the superior species on this planet even though Mother Nature gives back a big wake up slap!

    Japan, February 2011, one of the biggest tsunami we could have ever witnessed it costed a big economic destruction and killed tens to thousands of people. India, September, 2018 when entire Kerala and kodagu was affected due to heavy floods which left many people homeless and jobless 

Then there comes this microbe which has killed 1.7 lakh people and still unstoppable. 

    Humans have caused a lot of harm to the environment in various ways since the industrial revolution. The carbon footprint have increased rapidly in a decade causing a global phenomenon “climate change “ and melting arctic and Antarctic snow islands of the world, thereby raising the sea level and also making a hole in the ozone layer  sounds cool right!

    This is the reason nature as now started the human extinction programme to show humans that she still remains to be the far most superior force which can sustain life or even take lives. While corona is killing humans it is helping other species and Mother Nature to cure herself from the pollution caused by humans. Here are some of the images taken during this pandemic to show how earth is healing itself.

YAMUNA RIVER

DUCKS BACK IN VENICE WATERS

Author

SIDDARTH.D

Jain University

Nature Restores! What virtuous consequences has the lockdown led to?

‘Nature Restores’ - Undisturbed daytime nesting!

The October 2018’s Cyclone Titli, and the floods that followed, left huge piles of waste over about 8 km of the Rushikulya coast, Odisha which resulted in keeping the nesting Olive Ridleys away in 2019.

 

Nature’s splendid maternity ward wonder! 

As the sun begins to light up the eastern sky, Olive Ridley mothers heave themselves back into the sea after arribada. 

 

February 2018. Rushikulya.

But this year in March 2020 - lakhs of Olive Ridley turtles displayed the unusual phenomenon of day-time mass nesting at the Rushikulya rookery coast. Undisturbed mass nesting of Olive Ridleys at Odisha’s Rushikulya rookery was possible due to the restrictions in place for the COVID-19 threat. Is this a sign of Nature ‘restoring’ the earth in this time of COVID-19? 

    So, is nature 'resetting' the earth in this time of lockdown … is the earth really ‘healing’? Are animals ‘reclaiming the planet’? Has nature ‘triumphed’? The answer is yes and no: it depends on what you are looking at, the angle you are interpreting it from! In this write-up, we will briefly examine through an anecdote ‘What exactly do we mean by Nature restoration?’, ‘What virtuous consequences has the lockdown led to?’ and ‘Sync of the mankind with Nature since ages’. In the end, we will explore how we can sustain this ‘Nature’s Restoration’ by just changing our outlook.

1990s - Trysting with ‘Nature’

Since 1992 we are living in a home that nestled in the lap of a lush half-acre garden in a tribal town of Kandhamal of Odisha whose administrative setup comes under the 5th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Those days the garden was unruly but had a rich band of old trees of mango, guava, jackfruit, casuarina, pomegranate, water-apple (jamrul), and mud-apple (chiku). The frontage had red, white, and yellow champas blooming through the year while multi-hued seasonal blooms like phlox, petunias, gerberas, dianthus, marigolds, sunflowers and chrysanthemums would delightfully fill up the carved out flower-beds in the lawns.

    Dense foliage and fruit-laden trees ensured a steady stream of avian visitors into our home. Those were days when traffic was much less compared to what it is today. Mornings, therefore, were calm and quiet; we waking up invariably to the songs and calls of the choristers in our home grove. Orioles and parakeets would perch for long hours feasting on the fruits, unperturbed by human presence or by the dogs whose number grew from three to seventeen over the years. Crows, pigeons, mynas, and koels abounded in the trees and in the large courtyards, their calls, chirps, and coos as omnipresent as their day-long activities. With many skylights all over the house, hundreds of sparrows lived with us, their twittery chirps stamping the house with the charm of unadulterated homeliness. Birds and birdsong were an intrinsic part of our everyday lives, their presence taken much for granted. But as the years rolled by, the count of avian visitors waxed and waned … and finally to a stand-still.

    The onslaught of concrete, use of pesticides, and lack of skylights and thatched roofs, birds disappeared in our surroundings. Sadly this tribal city has lost all its sparrows. With scarce access to open spaces and our cooped up lifestyle in the company of gadgets ensured that we hardly notice or understand the beauty of the environment around us or its criticalities. Music from i-pods and i-pads rules our lives but our generation has no idea about the marvelous sounds and vocalizations that nature has gifted us.

[A painting of ‘Pale-capped Pigeons/Columba punicea’ – Acrylic on Canvas]

 Lockdown vs. Nature’s restoration

Nowadays waking up to the ringtones of alarm, was a regular morning habit for my father, until the 21-day countrywide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic began from March 24, 2020 midnight. He couldn’t quite recall seeing ‘5 Pale-capped Pigeons/Columba punicea’ in our garden, the rare species of pigeons that had been classified as “vulnerable” by IUCN. Infact, except for a few sites in Thailand, this bird has not been sighted for years in any of its known habitats. He watched in awe and it was his first sighting of a flock of preening ‘Pale-capped Pigeons’ and the feeling was truly elating for him!

What could be a more enriching experience of ‘Nature Restoration’ than this!

    With human beings cooped up in their homes because of COVID-19 lockdown, in India and elsewhere, the flora and fauna have come out to reclaim spaces from where it had been elbowed out. The world is certainly a quieter place in these days of the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With cars off the streets, seismologists investigating earthquakes in London, Brussels and Los Angeles report that the ambient noise levels are so low they are now better able to detect even smaller seismic events in these cities. 

    After decades, the River Ganga has started breathing again. It is rejuvenating, marine life is returning and its water in certain stretches has been classified as 'fit for drinking'. Industries that discharge effluents in the river are shut and humans who pollute the river are stuck indoors, due to the lockdown.

    The residents of Jalandhar in Punjab, woke up to a scintillating sight of the Dhauladhar mountain range and at the same time the waters of the Venice canals has a surprising sight – not just a clear view of the sandy bed, but shoals of tiny fish, scuttling crabs and multicolored plant-life.

    Already, data shows that the main cities of India are recording much lower levels of harmful microscopic particulate matter known as PM 2.5, and of nitrogen dioxide, which is released by vehicles and power plants. The sudden fall in pollutants and the subsequent blue skies signal a dramatic shift for India - which has 21 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, according to the IQAir AirVisual's 2019 World Air Quality Report

[Source - Internet CNN]

‘Live in sync with nature’

Mankind has been singing the song of the wild from prehistoric times. This is depicted in the primitive cave paintings of Bhimbetka, where 10,000 years ago, man illustrated every facet of nature that harmoniously co-existed with him. Early man’s destiny was inexorably entwined with nature; from nature, he derived sustenance and shelter and this led to the early understanding that it was the forces of nature that enabled his survival. All ancient and indigenous cultures, therefore, display a rich tradition of ethical protection of nature.

[Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life in India.]

[The Pashupati Seal is a steatite seal  of the Indus Valley Civilization.]

[Representative image of scared groves found in India which is on the decline.]

    India has a rich ecological tradition of “sacred groves” – forests that were marked for temples and deities and thus received protection from any kind of human encroachment or activity. In fact, the tradition of “sacred groves”, which continues until today in parts of the western ghats, has resulted in large pockets of rich biodiversity that are believed to be the last resort of many endemic species, which are otherwise not seen outside these protected areas. Our traditional folklores and festivals eulogize nature in its myriad forms.

    Taking cues from the virtuous consequences of the lockdown, it can be asserted, “Though the mankind has lost the chord of interconnectedness in the universe, still we can find this lost chord with our wisdom, intense efforts & sacrifice to restore some balance and to reconnect sensibly with the elements that are the basis of our sustenance. Only then will there be harmony in our existence!” 

Changing our ‘outlook’

We can develop technologies to overcome nature and re-shape our environment. There is no doubt progress in science and technology has served humanity well over centuries and they will continue to be called upon to serve society for centuries to come. What we will need, however, is an outlook that seeks to harness our knowledge of science to work in harmony with nature, rather than attempt to bulldoze it. 

    Man and Nature have been woven inexorably since the beginning of the human race. The attempt, therefore, should be to maintain complete balance with nature and its many aspects so that the tuning between human beings and their nurturer remained harmonious!

Author:

Somesh Ranabijuli

Madhusudan Law College, Cuttack, Odisha