It is good of my long-time publishers, Rupa, to bring out this selection of some of my favourite nature pieces on my 82nd birthday. I have been writing stories, sketches, poems and novels for over 65 years, and the greatest pleasure has come from writing about the natural world in my vicinity-wherever I may have been living. When I came to live in Mussoorie just over fifty years ago, I lived in Maplewood Lodge, a cottage below Wynberg-Allen School. Its windows opened on to a well-forested hillside. So naturally I wrote about the trees, wild flowers and birds and other creatures who lived among them. Then circum- stances forced me to move higher up the mountain, and for the last thirty-five years I have lived on the top floor of Ivy Cottage, in Landour Cantonment. Here there are windows too, and they open on to sky, clouds, the Doon valley, and range upon range of mountains. And from this perch on the hillside 1feel that I am part of the greater world, mother India as well as the natural world of planet Earth. Humankind took over the earth from the dinosaurs, who perished due to natural upheavals and dramatic climate changes. We could go the same way, as we have proved to be bad tenants with little or no regard for the natural world that we have inherited. But I do not despair. Dawn gives way to daybreak and daybreak to sunrise. And when the sun bursts through my windows and streams across my little room, I look forward to another great day on the planet Earth. We must cherish each day as though it is our last. Some of these pieces have appeared before in magazines or newspapers. A few are recent. Several have not been published between book covers. I dedicate this book to all who cherish the green world of India, its forests, fields, streams and sacred rivers. Nature sustains us. Let us not do away with our natural inheritance.
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In this chapter, the writer raises an issue towards the deteriorating health of the earth. As human beings have been exploiting natural resources from decades, presently the condition has made the environment critical. In 1972, the Green Movement helped environmentalists to raise awareness about the harmful condition of the earth and since then there has been no looking back as the movement has been successfully educating people about the conservation of the environment.
Earth is like a patient whose health is declining and it is our duty to improve it. In 1987, the term Sustainable Development was used by the World Commission on Environment and Development. A zoo in Lukasa, Zambia has a cage in which a sign reads ‘The World’s most dangerous animal’ and inside there is a mirror. It gives a message that human beings are the most dangerous animals. Brandt Commission raised a question “Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and ailing environment?”
There are four principal biological systems that form the foundation of the global economic system - fisheries, grasslands, forests, and croplands. These four systems also provide food and raw materials for industries except for minerals and synthetics. With these systems becoming unsustainable, fisheries will collapse, the forest will slowly disappear, grasslands will turn into a barren wasteland and croplands will become worse.
In poor countries, forests are being cut down for fuelwood which is used for cooking purposes. There are some areas where the cost of fuelwood is more than the cost of food. It is leading to deforestation at an alarming rate.
One of the reasons for the exploitation of the environment is the increasing population. It is observed that about one million population is increasing in every four days. This is not a good sign. There is an urgent need to control overpopulation in the world. Development is the best contraceptive for this problem as it will help in reduction in fertility, increase in education and income and improvement in health.
We must see the world as a whole and not as dissociated parts. It is a holistic and ecological view. According to Lester brown, we have not inherited the earth from our forefathers but we have borrowed it from our future generations.
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