Being “Biodieverse”

What if trees gave out wifi signals? We would then be planting trees as though they were an asset we couldn’t live without, and create a world where environment wouldn’t need protecting. Too bad they only give out the oxygen for us to breathe.

Story telling has existed for as long as humans have been able to speak. From fairytales, about mythological pixies, brownies and elves, to folk tales, fables, and personal life experiences, stories have passed down to future generations by grandparents, and told with great wisdom and insight. No matter the story told, the teller always imparts with a message or two; whether it be a moral lesson, a historical fact, a life experience, or an insight to an event. 

The idea of penning down this article struck me, when I came across a photograph of myself in one of the old family albums. I was posing next to a bed of roses, my age not more than five.

I remember it to be a beautiful spring morning. The sun shone brightly, its rays gently touching the earth, and the sky brilliantly blue, as though to express its ecstasy on the commencement of a new day. The birds sang melodiously, in blissful ignorance of the deadly world around them. I strolled around my garden to see how magnificently the seeds which were planted three weeks back had transformed themselves into fragrant and beautiful blossoms.

“Can I pluck one, Daddy?” I asked my dad, in all innocence. “No, you can’t”, came the reply. Being a very particular and choosy person, I have always disliked it when something I profoundly desired, wasn’t mine. I started crying and shouting, arguing being my normal reaction to a situation such as this. My dad gently held my hand and made me sit down on the front porch. “I will tell you a small story today”, he said, wiping away my tears.

“Long long ago, there lived a little grey melancholic planet. The people living there never looked after it, despite being able to achieve the milestones of inventing and discovering things, which had always remained a far cry in the minds of people. They had contaminated the countryside and left the land absolutely barren, where no plants and animals could thrive. One day, a little boy was walking on the planet when he passed a cave, and observed a small red flower inside. The flower was sick, and almost dying. The little boy dug up the flower, and started looking for a place where he could allow it to nurture and nourish. He travelled all over the planet, to search for the destination he had imagined, but all his efforts were futile. Frustrated, he looked up at the sky and noticed the moon. It seemed to the boy, that maybe the plant would be able to survive there. The little boy put on his astronaut suit, and climbed into a space ship. He put the little red flower in the back, and off they went to the moon. Far away from the damaging pollution, and under the care of the little boy who often visited the moon to tend it, the flower, gradually began to grow. The flower was so well cared for, that it soon germinated, giving birth to others, and the other flowers spreading onto others. Before long, the moon was covered with flowers. To this day, when a new flower blooms, the moon takes on a soft red sheen, as though giving a tribute the little boy. Maybe, it is telling us, that if we don’t look after our planet, a day will come, when flowers will only be able to grow on the moon…”

Since I was only five, even a short story such as this had deeply moved me. I stood motionless, as if to extend my tribute to that small boy. I decided to never pluck a flower again, and watered the plants in my garden every day. Although it’s been years since the incident and I am grown up enough to differentiate between true stories and fables, the tale still motivates me to contribute to the protection of nature and its fascinating wonders. Even today, gardening is amongst my favorite hobbies. Through this article, I would like to convey a simple message to all the readers.

We talk about saving our environment; we talk about conservation of resources. We preach about protecting endangered flora and fauna, we read about the importance of a healthy ecosystem to survive. Sadly, our irresponsible and ignorant actions turn out to be contradictory to our noble ideas. Man’s unbridled demand for more and his reckless greed seem to triumph over his compassion towards nature. 

Over a millennium of industrialization, the conflict between nature and mankind has never been as serious as it is today. The depletion, the degradation, the rapid exhaustion of resources, and the worsening of the ecological economy have become the bottlenecks for grave impediments of the nation’s economic and social developments. 

Our beautiful planet, today, stands at the threshold of survival. The onus is on man, the most judicious of all living organisms, to draw a line between his intelligence and ignorance, his needs and his greed and between existence and destruction. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is today!