I went to a place by the name of Morni Hills on a "departmental picnic" yesterday, and a beautiful place it is too. While all the rest of my mates were getting spooked out in the hous of horrors, I walked down a short distance to one of the two lakes called pandutal (after the pandavas of the mahabharata) and got this picture. It was only then that I realised that only a few years ago, this place must have been truly magnificient. I glanced up to the denuded hills to see signs of dried up waterfalls which now probably never flow except when it rains a lot, the fields all green with wheat and mustard must have actually been lake bed, now reclaimed for agriculture. Developement, it seems catched up everywhere. High up from the hills, the two lakes are only divided by a small hill, in all probability an island when the lake was bigger and lusher.
When i saw the scarecrow, i initially thought it was a body hanging from the mango tree in the distance, gently swaying in the breeze. There were cries of children at play but there were no where to be seen. other than that, the silence was exquisite and perfect. The whole combination was somehow surreal and in a way even scary. When I look at this picture, I can sometimes get a twinge of that feeling. I think its one of the greatest gift a meaningful picture gives, that is the power to recreate an emotion. Even though imperfect, I know of nothing else that does.
Evereywhere today, the story is the same, shrinking lakes, vanishing forests, no wildlife to speak of. I wonder if we will eventually be in a state to ever save anything before its too late for anything to be saved.
A few days ago, I read an autobiography by Salim Ali, the well known bird watcher. And it was truly fascinating reading. The fall of a sparrow, as it is named as an allusion to his killing a yellow throated sparrow chronicles the state of the magnificient wildlife and forest that we had even fifty years ago. And within these years of independence, we have been spectacularly successful at destroying of most of all that we had. And we are still ready to ruin whatever little that is left.
