Environment Day Thoughts

Fort Kochi Beach - circa 2018

Recently I visited my cousin at Fort Kochi. To make use of our great evening time, we decided to visit the beach with our family. We both have seen Fort Kochi a lot. I used to spend my summer vacation there. The beach and its surroundings were more than familiar to us. But it was all decades back. And this is an opportunity to reel back to those good days. We roamed around the streets and market places watching the changes and finally landed on the beach. Yes, many things have drastically changed around. But above all those, I was completely struck-down by what I saw at the beach. First of all, there was no beach at all as we used to see. We had to walk long way down through the sand to reach the beach. Now, the beach has come so close to us that in one gush it can wash away the road! The shining sand was what we used to see around, may be a little tainted by weeds. But now, there are heaps of garbage, debris, scrap, waste, filth and what not filled around us. Yet, there I saw families enjoying, kids running, people fishing, dogs eating and the giant ships pushing through all filling me with a disgusting feel. That day, the sun set into the clouds as if it had enough of all these. And yet, I thoroughly felt, we the proud public, we the pompous people, we the hypocritic humans are not feeling an iota of change in our conscience, in our mindset, in our attitude or in our life style. We are simply adapting to the growing pile of garbage under, above and around us. What a pity!

As kids, just as we wake up in the morning, father used to make us recite a small prayer before we put our feet on the earth – which ends with the words “Paadasparsam Kshamasvame!”. We hardly thought about its meaning in those days. It was only when we started to learn about Nature, Earth and our Environment we started to understand its subtle meaning – “Forgive me for putting my legs on you, Oh Mother Earth!” and in a deeper sense addressing to Earth we pray – “Forgive me, though I am putting my legs on you, I wouldn’t be hurting you, I would be responsible to whatever I do with what you give me.” – How profound!

And we say we were uncivilized in those days and are becoming civilized now! How absurd?!

And here we are in the year 2018 with the Environment Day staring at us with the slogan to move towards plastic free future. We invented plastic, we used plastic, we misused plastic and now we cry out loud– Beat Plastic Pollution!

I got a chance to listen to a fantastic discussion about this year’s Environment Day theme (Samvadham in Doordharshan, Malayalam). The expert talks were making it crystal clear – the coming generation is going to suffer for sure if we keep on using plastic as we are doing now. However scientifically we use, reuse or recycle plastic it is going to come back to us and erode us in one form or other. Slowly it will get into our ground water making our ground/well water un-potable. We will be surrounded with diseases unknown, unheard, un-curable! And the experts say - There is only one true way ahead – Reduce and Remove! If you could instill it in your head, Oh Human, go and look in your house, look at your life style, look into your conscience – and see in how many varied ways you are using plastic to pollute yourself. We do not have a day to lose. Come, let us go back to the sublime lifestyle taught by our grandparents. Let us recite the Nature prayers taught to us by our ancestors. Let us look at those innocent smiles of kids around and make a pledge – We will Reduce it. We will Remove it.

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