Today is World Environment Day. We are currently experiencing the hottest summers, coldest winters, most fierce storms, with a host of other calamities like the pollution of the entire Eco-system we co-habit with other species. We have destroyed countless species and have threatened the very existence of the planet.
This year the UN has declared a special theme for the occasion- it is Connecting People with Nature.
Man has forgotten that he is essentially a part of nature and its destruction has essentially paved the way for his extinction.
The Uncommon Box presents this special write up on the occasion of World Environment Day, penned by Uncommon writer Ram Aravind – who voices a universal concern in his words.
Climate change is real and happening. Though conspicuous by their absence, the older generation is no longer witnesses the birds and animals around them whose presence they once cherished. The decline of the small “beauties” is alarming and it is not long before the disappearance of species reaches unthinkable proportions. But pressing the alarm button then would be too late.
This poem is an ode to the butterfly which has become a rarity these days especially in the inhospitable concrete constructions of Delhi.
ANOTHER DISAPPEARANCE ACT
As I sat looking up at the sky through the half open door
On a not-so-bright Sunday morning,
I saw a whiff of black which flickered
Through my range of vision
Like a dashing asteroid that disturbs the astronomer
I got up to inspect
And I was disappointed, or maybe it was illusory.
So I thought
But again a flutter and
This time I could make no mistake, It was a black butterfly with shapely wings and ‘polka dots’
What had a butterfly to do in a garden set up in a small balcony?
Where there were no flowers to offer nectar?
But it had a brief purpose
To set us all thinking
About the shrinking space which
Was all we had to offer the small insects around us.
In that big garden in front of my ancestral house in Kerala
I have spent considerable evenings
Looking at them float
I, now no longer see them and
In the evenings only the smell of blooms lingers,
Not the butterflies anymore to add lustre.
In a matter of years
Humans have wiped out from the face of earth
A lot many species
Will the future generation expect us to hand them over,
What we had inherited and failed to protect?
If they do
Its treachery and injustice, on our part
For being so reckless and thoughtless.
Now we no longer can afford excuses.
In an age where human race is becoming extinct
Can the smaller beings expect any favour?
A most profound way of describing a larger issue through a simple symbol of a butterfly, this poem articulates what we have done to our world. The future generations will definitely put us on trial for being responsible with the planet and we will have nothing to defend our case.
A post graduate from TISS, Mumbai and currently working as an independent consultant with leading development agencies, Ram S Aravind lives in Delhi and loves traveling to quaint locations untouched by the devilish human touch. The poet also contributes to websites which lets one raise their voice against anything which otherwise would be clamped down upon.
Do share your views on how we need to be more proactive in protecting the only planet we have.
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