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Few months back, we saw parts of Europe came under floods, followed by similar incidents in China. In India also there was very heavy rains during monsoon period in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, and, Himachal Pradesh with landslides etc. Even last week Uttarakhand was reeling under severe flood.
Indeed CLIMATE CHANGE is a reality, as we have seen based on many uncommon incidents happening across the world. Unseasonal rains, floods, drought, rising & dipping temperatures, or extreme weather are all because of the neglect we have had so far conserving nature .Just to remind us that there is still time to pull up our efforts, we celebrate World Nature Conservation Day on 28th July every year. This is closely followed by World Tiger Day on 29th July. Basically nature and wildlife are closely linked with each other. Unfortunately, man has been responsible for exploiting both. Therefore, it becomes essential for us to do what we can to protect our future generations.
A healthy environment is a must for healthy society. Whether we acknowledge it or not, all life on planet is linked. We depend on nature for many resources; without air, water, soil, plants and animals, humans can not survive. Unless humans bring in conservation and preservation of nature into their everyday lifestyle, it may bring about the extinctions of humans in future.
Conservation is all about sustainable and responsible use of natural resources by humans, and preservation talk about protecting resources and exploitation. A combination of these by each individual driven by the respect of these will ensure that our oceans, marine life, wild life, and forests are also saved from extinction. Unfortunately, human destroy nature through pollution, mining, deforestation, poaching of wildlife, and uncontrolled use of natural resources. For maintaining the ecological balance and our own survival, we need to pay attention to this matter.
India, being home to more than half the tigers in the world, has been putting in some consistent efforts in their conservation and preservation. You may be surprised to know that we have only around 2220 tigers in the country If we do not allow them to live and breed naturally and protect them from poachers, we may soon only have few in zoo to look at.
In a recent movie ‘Sherni’, Vidya Balan has enacted the role of a Forest Officer trying to protect a tigress. The Man v/s animal conflict happens only because man encroaches on their territory and rarely the other way round. The movie depicts the challenges of group of people who are willing to go the extra mile to make things happen. Tigers play an important role in naturally protecting our biodiversity, and it is our duty to protect them to keep the environment intact.
All responsible citizens of the world, there are few things, that each one of us can to do our bit.
1 Use all resources wisely and make sustainable living a part of our daily living. Use less water, electricity, avoid food wastage, harvest rainwater etc; are few small measures that we can adopt.
2 spread awareness about the conservation and preservation of nature among our family and friends.
3 Reduce all forms of pollution from our side-air , water, land, whichever form of our nature.
4 oppose deforestation and also plant trees as much as possible.
5 Start your own garden, even if small.
6 Reuse, recycle and say no to plastic or paper bags.
7 Observe vehicle free days, remember how nature came in full force when the world came to stop due to corona virus pandemic.
8 Do not support products made from wild animal parts like skin, nails, teeth, etc. Poachers depend on this to thrive, and we should create awareness on this aspect.
So these are few points which we can adopt in our daily life to protect nature.
Waiting, for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
27th October 2021.