THE SCOURGE OF NATURE

 

        

                      

            

              

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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