Suhail Bashir
Humans turned to be beasts disturb the balance in nature and consume everything what comes in their way not as according to their needs but as their covetous nature and doing all sorts of misadventures over wildlife. Wildlife the ultimate and amazing gift of creator, without wildlife life humans cannot think of existence as wildlife holds the essential position in food web. The ancient rural civilization used to be morally upright as they consider wildlife sacred included both plants, animals as well as microbiota and to safeguard the wildlife was the moral obligation but that turned to be outdated in so called modern liberal society. The modern society destroys wildlife for fun and sport and wildlife mafia is booming like wildfire. The wildlife is at stake and we all are equally responsible as we hardly care for the mother nature. In our rural areas we witnessed and admire the beauty of wildlife movement across rural settlements till recent years like monkey, porcupine, bear, leopard etc, as well other migratory birds but due to many reasons their number got reduced from maximum to rare. Many of the species are at verge of extinction while some are extinct. There are many reasons responsible for wildlife loss and some of them are as; habitat fragmentation, habitat loss, deforestation, wildlife trade, poaching and hunting as well as urban sprawling. In ancient times people prefer to stay in a single house as joint family throughout their lives. The urban sprawling just disturbed the actual harmony with nature as people used to cut the tress more and more and occupy the forest land as well as agricultural land for construction of houses and every single individual possesses a strong desire to have a separate houses and the day is no longer when we don’t have a single square foot as green area. The urban sprawling not only consumes the productive agricultural land but has also accelerated the rate of deforestation which in turn directly proved to be lethal for wildlife and indirectly put the human sustenance at stake. The greed of mankind will be the game changer and is a threat to human survival. In ancient times rural areas used to receive a lot of wild bee colonies while in winters people walk along countryside to admire the beauty of migratory birds which travel from southern to northern hemisphere of the earth. In the rural areas one used to have more agricultural land which is actually guarantee to human race but that is nowadays either converted into horticultural land or under construction purposes and the government still don’t take necessary steps to counter the land consumption rate although development is necessary and being as an econut we aren’t opposing development but it should be in a sustainable manner so that further devastation can be mitigated. The care for wildlife is almost dead in rural areas as the rural people have had more interaction with wildlife as it used to be in ancient times. The forest cover is declining and natural resources are over exploited and the exploiters as well as the wildlife law violators are moving freely along village fences. The authorities are at back foot and the wildlife exploiters are deriving money from wildlife (Nature) in illegal way and this is against the morality as well as against the environmental ethics. The rural people almost contaminate all the natural blessings like the wild aquifers, streams, as well as rivers and have degraded the land and are using every possible means to cut off the whole forest. The rural people are of firm opinion that these resources belongs to them and they can consume as much as they can and the concept of sustainable use is just an obsolete word to them and they also think that they don’t have any obligation to save the mother nature especially wildlife. The authorities stand responsible and the authorities should arrange environmental camps, seminars on rural level (panchayat level) to educate people about wildlife, its benefits as well as the impacts of ruining wildlife. The natural resources are just like legacy which one is supposed to use in a sustainable way for our future generations. The urban sprawling and deforestation not only consume the land and reduce green cover but also lead to human wildlife conflict as is reported every month. The humans destruct wildlife habitat and force wild animals to come across rural settlements for food and shelter, but unfortunately the human kind define them as verminous and then are being murdered ruthlessly while people rejoice the so called bravery. Some months ago in south Kashmir a brave did the same thing and he murdered a leopard and then captured it in a video as a mark of bravery while some days ago in Palakkad district of Kerala pregnant Elephant got brutally killed by some arrogant as well as ignorant residents of that district of Kerala state, the state with highest literacy rate in country. There are thousands of such incidents which are unheard as wildlife is voiceless while Times of India reported that 24 tigers and 110 leopards have quietly choked to death in last year and by the fact we can imagine how many had lost their lives throughout the India. There are thousands of birds & animals which are being caged and their rights to freedom and life are being curbed by mankind and very rare people stand for their rights. The situation is worsening day by day and it is believed and observed that once the keystone species are extincted the whole food web will get disturbed and the whole system will get automatically collapse including so called human existence. We all are eco activists and are equally responsible and need not any degree for protection, conservation and management of wildlife and nature as we need the nature to live in. The authorities should come forward with more responsibilities and should frame more laws for wildlife to safeguard our own existence directly. ‘SAFEGUARD WILDLIFE, MAINTAIN FOOD WEB” “LIFE OF AN ANIMAL IS IN NO WAY LESS PRECIOUS THAN YOU OWN”
The author is a student of Masters in Environmental Science at Cluster University Srinagar J&K. [email protected]
