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INDIAS WILDLIFE HERITAGE

India is fortunate to have been blessed with a myriad of wild flora and fauna by

Mother Nature. If not in gold or green-bucks, at least in green wealth, India is certainly

rich. From ages past, scientists, poets, writers and others have marveled at and extolled

Indias wildlife heritage. Various animals and plants of various sizes have made India

their home. The protection of these various, marvelous creatures is our bounden duty.

However, of late, with the effects of globalization and industrialization, we have begun to

ignore these indispensable assets of ours. We will certainly regret this action in the longer

run. Or if not us, our descendents certainly will. Protecting it has to become our priority.

In these days of indiscriminate deforestation and usage of natural resources, we

should make sure that our wildlife heritage is not lost. A sustainable use of resources in

such a way that it will not endanger the very survival of a species is the need of the hour.

The delicate mechanisms of nature bring to mind the proverbial Damocless sword which

hangs from a single horse-hair. If it breaks, it falls down point-first onto the head of

humanity. A dangerous thing indeed! If a single species is lost, then because of the nature

of nature, all the organisms in its food web are adversely or favorably affected. This in

turn has other consequences and in the end, the overall effect will be always negative.

Negativity, unfortunately is a lot like the thermo-dynamical concept of entropy.

Especially when it comes to nature. It always increases. If someone or something disturbs

nature, the total effect is always negative. It however differs from entropy in a singular

way; it is possible to reverse the flow of negativity, though with a large number of

difficulties and tribulations. The haphazard and capricious way in which we are disposingof our biosphere is causing a huge increase in negativity which, needless to say will be

difficult to erase.

India has about 350 different species of mammals, 1200 different species of birds

which cover 14 percent of the worlds avifauna, 453 different species of reptiles, 182

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different species of amphibians and 14500 different species of angiosperms. Also India

boasts 45000 plant species that constitute 6.4 percent of plant species on earth. The

Andaman and Nicobar islands alone house 2200 species of flowering plants and 120

species of ferns. When all's said and done, India has 77000 species of animals, about

50000 species of insects and about 13000 species of butterflies and moths. The sixteen

major forest types of India are distributed in 10 distinctive biogeographic zones, having

25 subdivisions and a much larger variety of ecosystems. All these facts and figures give

us just a bland, insipid view of the total richness of Indias ecosystem. The true picture

can come only when we visit the green, thriving forests of India.

Visitors to India say that India has a particular smell. A dusty, inspiring odor

filled with adventure. Or something like that. One runs across similar words in variousaccounts of foreigners who have visited and lived in India for an extended period of time;

especially in the hill stations. This smell of India is nothing more than the odor of

Indias forests. An odor that has led many of different countries to choose India over their

homes. When people from other countries have done so, it must be but a no-contest that

Indians feel too the same way about things, right? But no. Many in India, living right in

our midst think and feel differently and resort to destroying the life of India via varied,

cunning means that has made the Indian Government and the Indian people look on

helpless. A sad state of affairs, indeed.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever said the great English poet John Keats,

perhaps the greatest of the second generation of English Romantic poets. Reviled as a bad

poet during his lifetime, his subtle prominence was acknowledged only much later. A

true worshipper of beauty as noticed in his poems, he had given up a possible career in

surgery to write poems and so would have been hit hard by this lackadaisical attitude

towards his work. He however had an eerie knack of hitting a nail on its head as can be

evinced from the above quote. The aesthetic brilliance, beauty and peace provided by the

richness of our wildlife heritage just cannot be overstated. According to our old Hindu

customs, man has to spend one-fourth of his life - the last part, incidentally, in our forests.

This is to provide ourselves with a serene backdrop in which to analyze our life and

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meditate. Our wildlife heritage can thus be seen to have massive aesthetic or artistic

value.

But this is not the end of the value of our environment. No sir! Life itself for

humans is possible only because of our wildlife heritage. And it is not only about just

survival. The word opulence is in the dictionary because of nature. Why, even the very

pages of a dictionary are but examples of how important nature is! The old story of a tree

giving away anything and everything that it has to fulfill the needs and desires of a young

boy who grows old, gives us an enduring image of the beastly nature of man and the

manly nature of nature. Indias heritage being as rich as it is demands a great amount of

caring and we should at all costs extend a helping hand as far down the line as we can.

A countrys wildlife heritage is the gift that the country has got from the

Almighty. Whether to exploit it unsustainably or sustainably is that countrys choice.

Since days of yore, Indians have learnt to live with and in the forests. Generations of

Indians existed, giving respect to and loving wildlife. Those times are long gone and can

never be brought back again. It is accepted. In the fast-developing and growing world,

India must keep pace and more. However the legacy of our far-seeing forefathers

remains. The richness of Indias wildlife heritage is perhaps unmatched in todays world.

It enables us to use our resources to the fullest when the resources of other countries are

but parched. But all that our ancestors did will be but wasted if we decide to throw

caution to the winds and proceed, laxly in a manner usually called laissez-faire in

economics. A strong, positive approach must be used. Such says the vox populi too. It

has been often said that hoi polloi do not know what is good for them and what is not.

However for once, our leaders would do well to follow the words of their esteemed

voters.

PRATHEEK PRAVEEN KUMAR

prytheek@yahoo.com