1. Nature seems to unfold her mighty rage
To remind man’s persistent follies;
Man, ever destroying Nature with selfish
craze
How can he simply ruin useful plains and
trees?
How can he murder lovely creatures wild?
Or cage them simply to feed his cruel pride
Can he create lost treasures of Nature again?
Can he re-fill the void and soothe her pain?
Man’s monstrous deeds imprinted on eternal
time
Rebound with might to chastise his inhuman
crimes.
2. Seasons went out of tune and their ordained
laws
With unruly winds that confounds our
technical brain;
As if to strike back man’s repeated flaws
As if they rebelled due to unbearable strain
Our reckless actions lead to total chaos.
Punishing mankind with inestimable loss
What folly have those dumb creatures done?
Why should they face annihilation?
What right man has to meddle with creation?
What right man has to spread pollution?
3. The furious cyclone lashed many a place
Pouncing like a wounded tiger without
restraint;
Winds whirled unbridled like stallions in a
race
The bridges and culverts down into deep
waters went
Housed trembled flooded with rain-waters knee-deep
Tall trees and poles struck down by stormy
sweep;
Lawless encroachments did enormous harm
Swelling drain-waters aggravated by storm
Changed every roadway into a cesspool
Gross negligence of planning and rules.
4. Houses and shops full-drenched with flooding
rains
All furniture drowned and damaged beyond
repair;
All roads submerged, and cancelled all buses
and trains;
All public facilities went out of gear;
People suffered a lot for want of water and
bread
Rains played havoc and left many a cattle
dead
Bare promises like distant mirages shone
All their fruits of labour suddenly gone;
Whom shall we blame for this grim catastrophe
dire?
Can man’s dry knowledge control mighty Nature’s ire?
5. Poor farmers’ crops washed off in torrential
rain
No proper storage provided to store their
grain;
Their year-long labour went down the drain;
Can meagre compensation assuage their pain?
Mere empty promises hang like barren clouds
Famished and debt-ridden languish poor
crowds;
None can predict weather and vagaries of
seasons;
But can reduce loss with planning and vision.
So many kill themselves in debt-trap caught
Food grains in granaries go waste and rot.
6. Help comes too late to relieve their pain
Nature exploited affects
in several ways
Forests destroyed and
burnt for selfish gain;
Rivers ravaged and
diverted of their wonted ways;
We trade with Nature’s
patience immense
Wiping out creatures and
forests dense;
So many rare, useful
species went extinct
Man lost his bond with Nature
and human instincts;
Nature’s gifts with greed
we grossly misuse
Vicious, destructive
means we wrongly choose.
7. Man’s grabbing nature, power and guile
Ruined most of Nature’s
precious gifts;
His reckless, wasteful
exploiting style
Sounded his own death-knell
and created a rift;
The balancing forces he
disturbed with brutal might
The gifts of science
perverted with cruel delight
Caused this plight of
facing extinction dire;
Nature’s forces rebelled
against the world entire.
Still not realizing
future disasters and gloom
He indulges in piling
weapons of dreadful doom.
8. We can’t create what we deliberately lost
Still, what is left we
can at least protect;
Let man live with Nature with humane heart
Let not this world be a war-torn lifeless
desert;
Our so-called well-developed mind too shallow
to see
The adverse effects of wasting and polluting
spree;
Let us make use of our discerning brain
Let us not fight like brutes in battles vain;
Let us not waste our knowledge earned with so
much strain
Let us not throw our precious culture into the drain;
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25th August, 2022 Somaseshu Gutala
Note : The world loses almost six million hectares of forest each year due to deforestation. Nearly 64% of tropical rain forests in the world are destroyed. Over two lakh acres of rainforests are burned every day. Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles. Animals like black Rhinoceros, the Tasmanian tiger, the Malabar civet, the flightless bird, Dodo, the Asiatic cheetah are wiped out of existence due to man’s indiscriminate hunting. Many animals like the Asiatic lion, the Bengal tiger, snow leopard, the Kashmiri red stag. The black buck, the great Indian bustard, the Nilgiri mountain goat and the one-horned rhinoceros are on the verge of extinction. Sea creatures like the sea otters, the blue whale, fur seals, the green sea turtle, Ridley Sea turtles are among the endangered species. Every year nearly one lakh marine mammals and sea turtles die when they are trapped in plastic nets or eat them. Due to the warming sea surface temperatures, fifty percent of the world’s coral reefs are now dead. Micro-plastic pollution in the ocean are polluting everything by killing and destroying marine life. Water pollution is created due to contamination of water sources by letting out chemicals, drainage water, oil spill and throwing of rubbish. Deforestation, burning of coal, oil and gas, and emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons, water vapor, nitrous oxide and ozone. This results in melting of glaciers, rising sea levels and unseasonal floods and draught. So, man should take necessary precautions and protect Nature for his own survival and for the welfare of other living organisms. He should use organic fertilizers, bio-degradable material, reduce use of pollutants and utilize non-conventional energy sources like solar and wind power. He should lead a simple, and natural life without depending too much on machines and without overconsuming or wasting resources keeping in view the well-being of future generations. He should curb overexploitation of natural resources and overuse of chemicals and fertilizers, and should not resort to unnatural means to increase production. He should reduce wasteful expenditure and should live in harmony with Nature. “The proper use of science is not to conquer Nature but to live in it.”-Barry Commoner. As Leo Tolstoy wrote,” One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.”
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