Humans always lived in co-existence with other animals and earth dwellers. Right form agriculture to armed wars, Humans always had animals for the task. Our ancestors had a first hand knowledge of each animal that co-existed with us.
They knew how to raise them, feed them, and train them. But so much has changed now, we live in the modern industrial era, fast moving motorcycles, polluting luxury vehicles, flying commuters and apathetic people who just don’t care.
I live in a calm neighbourhood in the outskirts of the Coimbatore city, TN, India. My home is just about a ten minute walk from a nearing jungle. This place has been calm, sometimes hot, heavenly pleased by rains, lovely neighbours and happy going life is easy here.
And yesterday, we had some special jumbo visitors to our neighbourhood. An Adult elephant and an elephant calf, I went out to the terrace after hearing some trumpet howls in the street and these giant mammals were scared but equally sticking to their mission: TO FIND WATER.
Hell is here already. All our water reserves, dams and bore-wells have dried up. We are digging 800 feet for water. We opt for bottled water, we drink coke and 7ups and some people drink beer more than water.
But what will these 5 sensed animals do? Few neighbour complain that these jumbos broke the near by water pipe, which people use every day. Few also think that these animals should be chased back to their forests! Kids occupy the streets to get a thrilling sight of this hungry elephant duo.
And I could do nothing to help this mammoth in distress, it needs water, it needs food and it needs shelter. And we the people are working 9 to 7 in our offices, selling services, consulting businesses, and every sort of a trick to save us in this angry economy to the same reasons as the other fellow earth dwellers do. We all need FOOD, WATER and SHELTER.
We go any any extra mile to loot these resources our way, we kill, we steal, we rob, we invade, we work harder to fight our everyday famine.
But when these jumbos take an extra mile to fight for their rights in this world, when they step into human colonies, we burst crackers, throw stones and shout-scream-yell at them to send them away to their land. We see elephants a threat, but actually, the whole Eco-system is in a big threat.
Economy is in a threat. Climate change is in a threat. Countries are in a threat. Corporations are, Bureocrats are, Farmers are, tourists are, rivers are, monkeys are, everyone one of us are in a threat.
It is time to realise the threat, we humans are not the invaders of this earth. We need a strong ecological balance, we need more tigers to hunt on deer, not more humans to hunt on chickens, more trees to save us, more love to help us, more intelligence to work for us.
We can’t feed these hungry elephants everyday(But, there are also people doing this),may be we can feed the birds at the least, by having a pot of water in your terrace, may be a couple of pots, this way we might help them drink some water, also gather a handful of rice and sprinkle it around the pot, this way those birds can eat them, if they want them.
Also don’t forget to feed yourself with water every day(Men: 3ltrs per day; Women 2.5 ltrs per day).
Thanks for reading. Have a beautiful week ahead.
Naveen writes 