It is official: Nature worship gets you in deep trouble, both pecuniary as well as emotional, and in worst cases, even death. Before you question my gloomy outlook towards the maintenance of Mother Earth, rest assured that I have completed my compulsory 'Environmental science' courses and therefore am a certified well-wisher of our habitat (ain't that right?). I of all people always believed that no harm can come out of protecting our environment, and planting a sapling is equivalent to Morrison's version of crack to nirvana. It is by chance, or by destiny, that the overwhelming evidence around us is coming into the fore at a time when the developed world still questions the assertions of IPCC's Nobel prize-winning endeavor. Does it really matter if the Himalayan glaciers melt in 2035 or 2080? The mere fact that they will be fading into the oblivion soon should have sent alarm bells ringing. But as with the human nature, having a free voice leads to multiple theories on any contentious issue, leading to a murky quagmire.
In a major development this week, a baba fasting for the protection of Ganga from the relentless illegal quarrying, affecting the biodiversity and ecology of the downstream, fasted to death, after 115 days! That the Ganga and the Yamuna nourish the agriculture belt of India is an ancient fact, which arises from a revered place for these rivers in Hindu mythology. Ganga was believed to have descended upon Earth through the enormous penance of King Bhagirath, who had to lay his brothers to peace which would have been possible through Ganga's sin-absolving quality. Well, we can pray to the deity all we want, even take a holy pilgrimage to Haridwar (doorway to God's kingdom), but Ganga is slowing being poisoned by the incessant illegal quarrying activity which is destroying the river bed, not to forget the cremation and offerings of human waste into the river flow in the hope of an end to the circle of life. It is just sad that despite numerous directives from the honorable courts and copious amounts of money that has been pumped into the cleansing and restoration of Ganga, the chances of saving it are slimming every passing day. And if you thought this is bad, have a look at the Yamuna when it traverses through the confines of Delhi. Nobody can blame you if you claim to have missed it, for it has been reduced a a black tarry stream full of toxic industrial waste. This is how India is paying back to the rivers it is indebted to for life.
The problems are not limited to India alone. Global warming skeptics, and there is a growing population of these, like to claim that this is not a new phenomenon and that it happens periodically in the earth's climate cycle, leading to different ages of natural conditions. Only problem being that the effects of rapid climate change have never been so potent or prominent. The shift in the arrival of different seasons is tangible, so is the increasing temperature at the various so-called 'cooler places' on Earth. Our glaciers are melting at a rapid pace, the Arctic is shrinking in size, and the Antarctic ice cap is disintegrating at a much faster pace than ever before. So some governments are actually taking it seriously and introducing measures like a Carbon tax on the citizens to offset the climate liabilities of the country. Well, it hasn't gone down well with earthlings, especially in Australia. Recent reports suggest that prime minister Julia Gillard is fast losing popularity and credibility for her efforts to tax her country for the fuel they burn and the greenhouse gases they emit. Now Julia Gillard has made some outrageous statements in the past, not least when the Indian students in Australia were facing violence arising out of racial and ethnic circumstances. But her popularity slumps when she tries to bring into effect a fundamental principle of introducing checks in the system to prevent misuse. Australia could have been a guiding light to the rest of the world, especially China which uses one-third of the Earth's energy resources and has been devouring it at a much faster rate in the past decade.
We make a big fuss about nature, vis-a-vis its role in our life and the sheer beauty gilded in its mysteries. The supermoon in March or the longest lunar eclipse of the decade 2 days ago would serve to remind us that tampering with nature and praising its beauty is a bigotry of the extreme kind. In India, nature worship has assumed a paramount role in all of our rituals. The havana is by design meant to clean the atmosphere by burning the microbes in the vicinity. Various festivals which have ties to worship of plants are to encourage their protection and nourishment. Nature has been our protector for long-it is our turn now to pay back or witness the devastation that will unfold once we reach the tipping point.
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