NATUREism...

Early morning breeze swaying alongside us. It was cold yet adaptable  and   pleasant . Coming from the place where only three seasons are predominant – hot, hotter, hottest – people embrace winter like never before. Little  did they realise that winter is really difficult to withstand and a significant reason to worry upon. Nevertheless, that’s what I did too in Kodaikanal – enjoying the cold weather conditions. The temperature was under 15 degrees in the morning and was well-suited for a lovely walk. Way to Wilderness I took a stroll along with a few of my nature lovers. The high rise trees, mostly non-native, standing erect on both sides of the rough path. Standing beneath them were a few native Shola trees like Native Olive , Nilgiri Elm , Matchbox tree, etc., which were once abundant in Kodaikanal but now exist only in small patches. Thanks to the invasive Eucalyptus, Pine, Lantana and Accacia trees (and many more) that took over the forest just like we (...

“Aren’t the drainage canals meant to be a place where we throw all our waste into it?” I came across this statement and it had prompted a long disturbing thought deeper inside  me  on the state of water bodies around us. Be it a well, a pond, a lake, a canal, a drain, a river, or even a sea, everything wears a mask. A mask which is least expected, unpleasant and destructive. It seems like a fantasy story to say that most of these water bodies had directly fetched fresh water serving as an open source near to us. Most of our parents and grandparents used it for drinking or washing or cooking or bathing or any other domestic purpose. We would have heard them talk about it or even some of us would have experienced the neighboring water bodies to be usable and is now either dry or full of ‘unusable’ water or had disappeared. Had we given a thought on where does the fall of neighbourhood water bodies start from? Dumping wastes, be it solid or liquid, it starts here. Are ...