I marveled at the monsoon, its amazing ways of
bringing down the heavy showers, which we badly needed for the various crops on
lands. Where do these clouds come from? Where do they go? ‘Ammachi’ explained by pointing to the globe and told us, “At the
equator region the sun is very close to the earth. Due to the extreme heat, the
surface water in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea gets heated up and the
water vapour from this gets transformed into clouds. This then moves west wards
with the help of the winds. The Kilimanjaro Mountain ranges in Africa stops
their further movement to the west and therefore they reach the Gulf region.
The North-west winds would bring them back to Kerala, where the ‘Sahyadri
Mountains and hills’ and their rich flora would stop them and with the help of cool
breeze it would start to rain. Some portion of the rain water would be drawn
down to the earth, which is called the underground water and the rest would
join to form small streams and then rivers and would reach the lagoons or ‘‘Kayal’, which ultimately would reach
the ocean, the region of its origin.” How correct is the idiom, “Little drops
of water make a mighty ocean.” It is a cyclic movement. If that is so, the
cultural evolution of conserving the whole year’s rainfall in dams breaks the
cyclic movement of water. Isn’t it one of the major reasons for depletion of
icebergs in the Arctic and elsewhere to replenish the loss?
Kalidasa,
a great epic writer of Ramayana, cut the branch of a tree on which he was
sitting. It is considered to be one of the greatest blunders ever known. What
are we doing? The tectonic-plates are the foundation of the surface of the land
mass on the earth where the fauna and flora lives. The surface of the earth is
as significant as air, water, fire and sky or space, which are essential for
the existence of life. Ignoring this, the government licenses issued for granite
mining are misused. These granite miners flagrantly violate the laws of Mother
Nature and create ecological imbalances.
In
comparison to the vastness of the Universe, our planet is very minute. In
comparison to the size of the earth, the human being too is minute. Beyond his
limitations, man tries to create a new order in nature thinking that he is the Master.
He never realizes the fact that his culture is causing a grave ecological
imbalance. Dams and hydroelectric projects and mining of large quantity of
granite in Sahyadri Mountains and hills are blatant examples. This has resulted
in deforestation, erosion, generation of Carbon dioxide, which contributes to
the global warming. The result of this has brought about severe ground-water
shortage in the hills, and floods and famines in the planes. A lot of forest
regions were submerged in the catchment areas of the dams. This resulted in the
extinction of varied flora and fauna. The ancient civilization of Mexico and
Peru are historic examples of the entire civilization becoming extinct with the
destruction of forests.
Human
beings have to live in harmony with nature. We should focus our attention to the urgent
need for the conservation of our flora and fauna and forest wealth and for the
preservation of the environment. The gifts of nature should be enjoyed; if one tries
to control or break the chain of events it may create a calamity.
Excerpts from
MEMOIRS
An autobiography
by
Joseph J. Thayamkeril
Lawyer, Kochi, Kerala, India.
josephjthayamkeril.blogspot.com
josephjthayamkeril@gmail.com
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