BY DESTROYING NATURE   

By destroying nature, environment, man is committing matricide, having in a way killed Mother Earth. Technological excellence, growth of industries, economical gains have led to depletion of natural resources irreversibly. Indifference of the grave consequences, lack of concern and foresight have contributed in large measures to the alarming position. In the case at hand, the alleged victim is the flora and fauna in and around Kudremukh National Park, a part of the Western Gates. The forests in the area are among 18 immediately recognized “Hotspots” for bio-diversity conservation in the world. The I.A. 670 of 2001 was filed by Sri K.M. Chinnappa describing himself as trustee. Wildlife First.

‘Environment’ is a difficult word to define. Its normal meaning relates to the surroundings, but obviously that it is a concept which is relatable to whatever object it is which is surrounded. Einstein had once observed, “The environment is everything that is n’t me”. About one and half century ago, in 1854, as the famous story goes the wise Indian Chief of Seattle replied to the offer of the great. White Chief in Washington to by their land. The reply is profound. It is beautiful. It is timeless. It contains the wisdom of the ages. It is first over and the most understanding statement on environment. The whole of it is worth quoting as any extract from it is to destroy its beauty.

“How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us.

If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every cleaning and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky creats, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man-all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word and he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children. So we will consider your offer to buy our land. But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us.

This shining water moves is the stream and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of event and memories in the life of people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my father’s father.

The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The river carry our canoes, and feed our must remember, and teach your children, that the river are our brothers, and yours and you must hence forth give the kindness your would give any brother.

We know that the white man does understand our ways. Our portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a strange who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother but his enemy and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father’s graves behind, and he does not care.

He kidnaps the earth from his children. His father’s grave and his children’s birth right are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand.

There is on quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of in insect’s wings. But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there in life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand. The prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond, and the smell of the wind itself, cleansed by a mid-day rain, or scented with the pinon pine.

The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath-the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man lying for many days, he is numb to the stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives the last sign. And if we sell you land, you must keep it apart and sacred as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow’s flowers.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept. I will make one condition. The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers.

I am a savage and I do not understand any other way. I have seen thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive.

What a man without beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts soon happens to man. All things are connected.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes do our grandfathers, so that they will respect the land. Tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the son of the earth. If man spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. This we know: All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not wave the web of life; he is merely a stand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.

Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brother after all. We shall see. One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover-our God is the same God. You may think now that you own him as you wish to own our land; but you cannot. He is the God man, and his compassion is equal for the red man and the white. This earth is precious to him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on the creator. The white too shall pass perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.

But in your perishing you will shine brightly, fried by the strength of the God who brought you this land and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and over the red man. That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when the wild buffaloes are slaughtered, the wild horse are tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires. Where is the thicket? Gone, where is the eagle? Gone. The end of living and the beginning of survival.”

It would be hard find out such dawn to earth description of nature. “Nature hates monopolies and knows no exception. It has always some levelling agency that puts the overbearing, the strong, the rich, the fortunate substantially on the same ground with all others” and Zarathustra. Environment is polycentric and multi-facet problem affecting the human existence. The Stokholm Declaration of United Nation on Human Environment, 1972, reads its Principle No. 3, inter alia, thus:

“Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality, and adequate condition of life. In an environment of equality that permits a life of dignity and well being and bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.”

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                                                                          YOGESH KUMAR SAXENA

                                                                                   ADVOCATE, HIGH COURT

GENERAL SECRETARY ALL INDIA BAR ASSOCIATION SUPREME COURT

                                                      EX SENIOR   VICE- PRESIDENT, ADVOCATE’S ASSOCIATION

                                             STATE TRESURER , ALL INDIA LAWYER’S ASSOCIATION

                                       ( U.P. ADHIVAKTA SANGH) R/O H.I.G.203, PREETAM NAGAR,                      SULEM SARAI, ALLAHABAD, U.P. INDIA