Monday 13 September 2010

Even tiny things do matter..

When i was a child i loved to listen to the song of frogs and crickets after heavy rain. There is a big field in front of my house and river at the backyard. When it rains both sides will be full of water and at night i used to lie in bed listening to the music of rain, frogs and crickets. It is a magical experience. The jugalbandhi goes on all through the night and for days at a stretch. And it never used to tire me.
Now, here in Bangalore i miss the rain and the music of these small creatures. As i could not control myself i went to Kerala this time during the rain. Am so dismayed to find out that the green field in front of my house is not there and the river is in patches. Even though it rained heavily it is not like the old times, when it rained day in and day out. In the place of green fields now stands big houses, shops, roads and malls. There is no place for water to flow, no place for it to stay. These fields and vacant spaces were the home to many small insects which were the important pillars of biodiversity and eco- balance. With the death of these places not only our village looked crowded, it also damaged the very essence of our environment.
This visit made me think, what happened to those frogs and crickets? Where are they now? We have learnt in the smaller classes that frog plays an important role in the eco-balance. Then, how will the ecosystem react to this? I don't know. But, it will definitely have a huge impact on our ecosystem for sure.
We always scream loud about preserving tigers, elephants and other bigger animals, but nobody cares about these small creatures. Where are our sparrows, crows and many more birds and insects which used to throng our neighbourhood earlier. For my generation we never expected to see a place without crows, but now, there is no crow in our own yard.
Slowly we are killing our ecosystem. More than the extinction of big animals, it is the tiny creature that preserve the ecobalance. Development and industrialization gives employment and makes our life easy. On the other hand it kills the fields, vacant space, hedges and even our lives. The impact may not be sudden, it will kill slowly. By the time we realise this it will be too late. So, from this day onwards think of the small creatures in your courtyard and neighbourhood, give them their space, don't wipe out their environment altogether. DEVELOP, BUT GIVE SPACE TO ENVIRONMENT!!

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