Man and nature
By: K S S Pillai
Landslides often occur in different parts of the country, particularly during the rainy season, causing loss of lives and properties. The blame game begins immediately, enquiry commissions are set up and human greed is shown as the main culprit. The incidents are soon forgotten, to be repeated year after year. The recent landslides in the Wayanad district of Kerala have also followed the set pattern.
The sleepy towns with tea gardens and modest buildings with a predominantly tribal population were often visited by outsiders to enjoy their natural beauty. Social media have displayed photographs of these places before and after the disaster, making one aware of what nature’s fury can do. The towns will be rebuilt eventually, and the deaths and destruction will become a memory except for those badly affected, but life will continue as before.
Despite modern technology, man has never been comfortable away from Mother Nature. Those who cannot go to the lap of nature enjoy the beauty captured by modern cameras. One of my favourite photographs shows a train moving at a snail’s pace far away, beyond vast green fields of standing paddy plants.
Nearer, a woman in dripping clothes, her lips continuously murmuring prayers, walks around a small temple. The leaves of an old peepal tree flutter with a rustling sound in the gentle morning breeze.
Nature is never too far away from us. Sometimes a lone peacock sits on the terrace of the building across the road in front of my house for a long time before flying clumsily to the vast farm of the agriculture college behind to have its fill of fruits undisturbed.
Occasionally, a silently gliding eagle on the lookout for unwary chickens is attacked by a couple of smaller birds. Come twilight, groups of bats fly to the same compound full of fruit trees. These bats will have a satisfying time, consuming fruits undisturbed throughout the night.
The vacant plot in front of our house is walled off, but different types of plants grow there, making it a small forest. It is a suitable place for snakes making their burrows or bitches delivering kittens, away from the prying eyes of children. Sometimes a snake slithers across the road and enters our compound. It disappears soon, making us jittery for a few days.
Looking across the open window of my bedroom at night, I see hundreds of tiny stars twinkling among the slow-moving clouds of various shapes. Sounds of different types produced by insects have a soothing effect on me, gently pushing me to the world of sleep.
During my childhood, I used to accompany my father to the marketplace a few miles away, which was a part of the wetland known as ‘Kuttanad’. The area was crisscrossed by several canals with fast-flowing deep water. The villages had no asphalt roads.
Many ‘bridges’ over the canals were the stems of a couple of coconut trees put side by side. The local population, including children, had no difficulty running across the bridges. Every house had small row boats. Those selling vegetables, fish and other essentials brought their wares in small boats and sold them to those staying on the canal banks.
During our annual visit to my native Kerala State, we visit nearby areas with dense forests. Roads that pass through forests have signboards with pictures of elephants, warning that wild elephants often cross the roads. We have never seen elephants on these roads, but branches of trees sometimes fall, making it dangerous for drivers to be careless.
We also often visit the nearby Idukki district, which has undulating tea gardens for miles and forests with animals. While having a boat ride, we see wild elephants and buffaloes eating grass in the distance in perfect harmony. Reports of wild animals entering human habitats and destroying agricultural plants also come from this district. When we travel at night through the mountainous areas, we get the view of lakhs of fireflies in the distance, creating a world of artificial light.
(The author is a retired professor of English. A regular contributor to ‘Kashmir Vision’, his articles and short stories have appeared in various national and international publications)
