Writer’s Notepad

इस धरती पर जीवन पर्यावरण के कारण ही संभव है। पर्यावरण से आशय उन सभी वस्तुओं से है जो हमारे चारों ओर हैं। प्रकृति द्वारा प्रदत्त संपदा ही हमारा पर्यावरण है। इस संपदा में वन, नदियां पहाड़, खनिज पदार्थ, सांस लेने के लिए वायु आदि आते हैं।

प्रकृति ने हमें बड़ी उदारता के साथ यह संपदा सौंपी है। यह समस्त प्राकृतिक संपदा इस धरती पर निवास करने वाले सभी जीवों को लिए है। इन जीवों में मनुष्य सबसे अधिक बुद्धिमान, शक्तिशाली और उद्यमी है।

अपनी बुद्धि और उद्यमता के बल पर मनुष्य ने इस धरती पर बहुत तरक्की की है। इस धरती के बड़े भाग पर उसने अपने विकास के निशान छोड़े हैं। लेकिन मनुष्य की इस सफलता की एक बड़ी कीमत पर्यावरण को चुकानी पड़ी है।

पर्यावरण इस धरती के सभी जीवों की साझा विरासत है। सभी जीव इसका एक अंग हैं। पर मनुष्य ने अपने आप को इस पर्यावरण का एक अंग ना मानकर इसका स्वामी मान लिया है। यही कारण है कि उसे लगता है कि यह पर्यावरण सिर्फ उसके उपभोग के लिए है। अतः उसने अपने स्वार्थ के लिए इसका दोहन करना शुरू कर दिया।

मनुष्य की इस हरकत का नतीजा यह हुआ कि पर्यावरण में असंतुलन उत्पन्न हो गया। पर्यावरण प्रदूषित हो गया। धरती पर जीवन पर्यावरण पर ही निर्भर है। पर्यावरण को प्रदूषित करके मनुष्य ने ना सिर्फ अपने लिए संकट पैदा किया है बल्की अन्य प्राणियों को भी खतरे में डाला है।

मनुष्य को छोड़कर धरती का हर प्राणी पर्यावरण से उतना ही लेता है जितना उसके जीवन के लिए आवश्यक है। पर्यावरण में एक संतुलन बनाए रखता है।

हम विवेकशील प्राणी होने के बावजूद भी यह नहीं समझ पा रहे हैं कि हमारी तरक्की का कोई मूल्य नहीं रह जाएगा यदि हम उस पर्यावरण को ही नष्ट कर देंगे जो हमारे जीवन के लिए आवश्यक है।

हमें समझना होगा कि पर्यावरण हमारी संपत्ति नहीं है कि हम अपने स्वार्थ के लिए उ‌सका उपयोग करें। बल्की बुद्धिमान प्राणी होने के नाते इसका संरक्षण करना हमारा उत्तरदायित्व है।

मनुष्य को उसकी ज़िम्मेदारी का एहसास कराने के लिए ही प्रत्येक वर्ष 5 जून को संयुक्त राष्ट्र द्वारा 100 से अधिक देशों में विश्व पर्यावरण दिवस मनाया जाता है। इसमें पर्यावरण को बचाने के उपायों पर विचार किया जाता है।

यह उचित समय है कि हम संभल जाएं। तरक्की के नाम पर पर्यावरण से खिलवाड़ करना बंद कर दें। यदि अब नहीं संभले तो आने वाली पीढ़ियों के लिए एक ऐसी धरती छोड़कर जाएंगे जहाँ उन्हें हर सांस के लिए संघर्ष करना पड़ेगा।

इस धरती पर जीवन पर्यावरण के कारण ही संभव है। पर्यावरण से आशय उन सभी वस्तुओं से है जो हमारे चारों ओर हैं। प्रकृति द्वारा प्रदत्त संपदा ही हमारा पर्यावरण है। इस संपदा में वन, नदियां पहाड़, खनिज पदार्थ, सांस लेने के लिए वायु आदि आते हैं।

प्रकृति ने हमें बड़ी उदारता के साथ यह संपदा सौंपी है। यह समस्त प्राकृतिक संपदा इस धरती पर निवास करने वाले सभी जीवों को लिए है। इन जीवों में मनुष्य सबसे अधिक बुद्धिमान, शक्तिशाली और उद्यमी है।

अपनी बुद्धि और उद्यमता के बल पर मनुष्य ने इस धरती पर बहुत तरक्की की है। इस धरती के बड़े भाग पर उसने अपने विकास के निशान छोड़े हैं। लेकिन मनुष्य की इस सफलता की एक बड़ी कीमत पर्यावरण को चुकानी पड़ी है।

पर्यावरण इस धरती के सभी जीवों की साझा विरासत है। सभी जीव इसका एक अंग हैं। पर मनुष्य ने अपने आप को इस पर्यावरण का एक अंग ना मानकर इसका स्वामी मान लिया है। यही कारण है कि उसे लगता है कि यह पर्यावरण सिर्फ उसके उपभोग के लिए है। अतः उसने अपने स्वार्थ के लिए इसका दोहन करना शुरू कर दिया।

मनुष्य की इस हरकत का नतीजा यह हुआ कि पर्यावरण में असंतुलन उत्पन्न हो गया। पर्यावरण प्रदूषित हो गया। धरती पर जीवन पर्यावरण पर ही निर्भर है। पर्यावरण को प्रदूषित करके मनुष्य ने ना सिर्फ अपने लिए संकट पैदा किया है बल्की अन्य प्राणियों को भी खतरे में डाला है।

मनुष्य को छोड़कर धरती का हर प्राणी पर्यावरण से उतना ही लेता है जितना उसके जीवन के लिए आवश्यक है। पर्यावरण में एक संतुलन बनाए रखता है।

हम विवेकशील प्राणी होने के बावजूद भी यह नहीं समझ पा रहे हैं कि हमारी तरक्की का कोई मूल्य नहीं रह जाएगा यदि हम उस पर्यावरण को ही नष्ट कर देंगे जो हमारे जीवन के लिए आवश्यक है।

हमें समझना होगा कि पर्यावरण हमारी संपत्ति नहीं है कि हम अपने स्वार्थ के लिए उ‌सका उपयोग करें। बल्की बुद्धिमान प्राणी होने के नाते इसका संरक्षण करना हमारा उत्तरदायित्व है।

मनुष्य को उसकी ज़िम्मेदारी का एहसास कराने के लिए ही प्रत्येक वर्ष 5 जून को संयुक्त राष्ट्र द्वारा 100 से अधिक देशों में विश्व पर्यावरण दिवस मनाया जाता है। इसमें पर्यावरण को बचाने के उपायों पर विचार किया जाता है।

यह उचित समय है कि हम संभल जाएं। तरक्की के नाम पर पर्यावरण से खिलवाड़ करना बंद कर दें। यदि अब नहीं संभले तो आने वाली पीढ़ियों के लिए एक ऐसी धरती छोड़कर जाएंगे जहाँ उन्हें हर सांस के लिए संघर्ष करना पड़ेगा।

In the entire universe, there is perhaps the only one planet – Earth, which is blessed with the most wonderful environment. Today, the environment supports more than 8.7 million species on Earth; 1-2 million of those species are animals. It is believed that there are 7,900,000,000 humans, 10 quintillion insects, 10,000 trillion ants, 20 quintillion animals, 50 – 420 Billion birds, 20 % known number of the lives under oceans.

It is very ironical that quintillion lives did not damage the environment. Instead they live with the harmony of the nature supporting the environmental balance. Unfortunately, we the human race of 7.9 billion and the past generations have demolished the mother earth and its environment in every possible way. The world shares a host of common environmental threats that are rapidly intensifying in many parts of the world. In almost every region, population growth, rapid urbanization, rising levels of consumption, desertification, land degradation and climate change have combined to leave countries suffering from severe water scarcity. If current trends continue and the world fails to enact solutions that improve current patterns of production and consumption, if we fail to use natural resources sustainably, then the state of the world’s environment will continue to decline.

There is a disastrous damage progressing all over the planet and environmental ethics concerns human beings’ ethical relationship with the natural environment. The current emergency in the world is no doubt due to the increasing awareness the unethical effects that technology, industry, economic expansion and population growth are having on the environment. At this stage it is imperative that we understand that not only the population but the devastating effects of the spiraling human population and the complete lack of concern is depleting the planet’s resources very fast. The job of environmental ethics is to outline our moral obligations in the face of such concerns. In a nutshell, the two fundamental questions that environmental ethics must address are: what duties do humans have with respect to the environment, and why? We, at this moment should shoulder the responsibility environmental obligations for the sake of human beings living in the world today, for humans living in the future, or for the sake of entities within the environment itself, irrespective of any human benefits?

Different philosophers have given quite different answers to this fundamental question which, as we shall see, has led to the emergence of quite different environmental ethics. If we use up all our resources, kill off and let species of plants and animals become extinct on earth, pollute our air and water, degrade land, and create enormous quantities of waste, we as a generation will leave nothing for future generations. Our present generation has developed its economies and lifestyles on unsustainable patterns of life. However, nature provides us with various options on how we utilize its goods and services. This is its option value. The option value allows us to use its resources sustainably and preserve its goods and services for the future.

One of the most imminent challenges faced by mankind today, is to safeguard the environment that sustains us. With the exponentially rising human activities over the past several decades in the arenas of commerce, industry and technology, we have intentionally and/or unintentionally infringed upon nature’s boundaries, its beauty and bounty. Each one of us is responsible for grossly neglecting the environment and taking our benevolent ‘Planet Earth’ for granted. From climate change to pollution, depletion of natural resources, extinction of plant, animal and marine life, we have been relentlessly eroding nature.

Our ecosystem has started bleeding due to our lack of empathy and selfishness. Too much damage has been done already. Before it is too late, we need to salvage the situation by consciously making amends, start behaving responsibly and staying committed. A fine balance needs to be struck between progress and environment protection, in order to show our gratitude to nature.

The wakeup call from environmentalists and social activists needs to be taken seriously. Each one of us must pledge towards the cause of creating a conducive environment and making ‘Planet Earth,’ a lovely residence for future generations; a legacy to be proud of.

As the saying goes, “charity begins at home.” Small beginnings will certainly go a long way if we are unified in our efforts.

Can we begin with by using eco-friendly sustainable products, upcycle materials, recycle waste, use biodegradable bags, have a plastic free home, have a rubbish free day for at least once a week, restrict wastage of food and produce from rainforests, drive only when needed, conserve power and water, plant more trees? These are just a few things that I have mentioned. If we put on our thinking cap, we can come up with millions of ways to help nature and nourish our environment.

I believe that above all, if we show LOVE TO NATURE, all else will fall in place as the effects of LOVE ARE EVERLASTING.

“LOVE ME LIKE I LOVE YOU.” Is that too much to ask for?

One fair summer day, I ventured into the thickly wooded hills. This is the part of my pilgrimage that leads to belonging, sense, and purpose. I dispose of the map and trust the passageway that winds through ancient forests and sparkling streams.

It takes a moment to adapt to the golden light, merging with shades of green, quivering against a distant blue sky. Stories swirl into various roots and moist earth before rushing up into an endless green carpet that sprawls beyond one’s comprehension.

Intoxicated bees share hard-earned secrets, buzzing atop unsuspecting wildflowers, greeting the pond, offering sweet fragments to unopened water lilies.

Amongst the long-buried stumps and rich green moss, ghosts linger, waiting and whispering loud enough to be known. They chant an almost-song that the birds quickly grasp, casting it down from a fluttering canopy to imprint on those who hear.

At last, I find the river and follow the bank until a clear, bottomless pool of wild water comes into view. I hesitate. What if there were no bottom, no end? Would I find my way back? Although the water is icy, perhaps it is deeper than anything I had ever jumped into before.

I remember it’s not the experience that matters. It’s what we do with it. The opportunity for transformation is where to focus. I ask myself, “Where is the lesson?” There may be many or one—evident from the beginning or requiring months or years to unravel.

Here and now, we witness the great unknown, blazing new trails, and discovering that we are not lost, but the world itself is adrift. As we stumble along unfamiliar terrain, we begin to understand that we are not searching for a pot of gold. Instead, we are here for the rainbow. There is no map, only the journey itself—ours to define and call our own.

You will know that you have found your way when you dare to walk along the moving rocks and uneven ground with your eyes closed, trusting your inner guide. If you fall down, you know how to pick yourself up and maintain your awareness. Guard it as if your life depends on it because it does.

Even when the earth seems uncertain, as if it may crumble away, I trust my footing. I carry on, finding refuge beneath broad-leafed trees or swim free in a clear river. After a chilling rain seeps into my bones, I welcome the sun’s warmth on my bare shoulders.

The way to rise up is to carry on—to hold tight to the healing gifts that grow in the open field and the woods. When darkness threatens to shadow my dreams, I remember that asking for help along the way is allowed. Succeeding alone is not the point. Trust that together or apart, you will remember the way home. Reclaim your place in the wild. You are nature.

Arjun lost his job during the pandemic. There was no income for a year, but he maintained his lifestyle and that of his family without too much of discomfort. How did he manage to do that? Since he was conscious of the available savings in hand, he planned his finances efficiently.

Arjun later got a high paying job. All the wasteful expenditure, which was cut out earlier, found their way back into the family budget.

What do we learn from this fictional story? Human behaviour responds differently to the availability of resources in hand. The more we have, the more we waste.

Here is another one.

Aditi was working in a MNC in Mumbai. Since it was ‘work from home’, she packed her bags and went to her ancestral home in South India for a break. It was a beautiful remote village with serene surroundings. She enjoyed every moment of it. Except for one discomfort. While brushing her teeth in the morning, she had to pick a mug of water from the bucket few times. And she was so used to brushing her teeth in front of a wash basin, keeping the water tap flowing continuously while she admired her beauty on the mirror. But she soon found out that it only takes few mugs of water to brush your teeth!

Aditi has realised that conservation of resources comes with a small price tag but not which one cannot afford!

We can connect with so many actual stories of our life. Like, when we step out of our house, we see that Mother Earth is so huge and this prompts us to throw the waste papers anywhere. There is so much space everywhere. You remember throwing that the toffee wrapper from the moving bus or train? Similarly, when we take a dip in the deep sea, we forget about marine population beneath and assume that the entire sea is a dump yard!

In fact, today we have reached a situation where conservation of resources is not an aspirational tool kit, to be read about in social media platforms and handles. It has become a necessity. The damage has already been done by Arjuns and Aditis in the past. It is time now to restore. For ourselves. For the future generation. For our existence. For our survival – before we become a history to a generation which perhaps may not be there to read our history!  Restoration cannot just remain a theme for a particular day or a year. It must be a way of life. And this cannot be preached nor taught – we must practise it naturally, daily.

Do we wait for Mother’s Day every year to love our Mother? No, right? Then why this discrimination to Environment which is the Mother to our surrounding?

Happy Environment Day 2021. Incidentally, this year’s theme is Restoration of the Ecosystem!

Rajat Mukherjee is an environmentalist, social worker and educator from Deoghar, Jharkhand. He is an avid nature lover, but his unique contribution to environment is what makes this person stand out. He has sketched about 500 different birds, and knows about each of them. Besides, he has also sketched a remarkable number of animals, insects, flowers, trees and butterflies.

Mr. Mukherjee says this journey of environmental art started about 30 years ago. Since childhood, nature and the immediate surroundings particularly birds formed a profound impact on him. His love for nature was nurtured in those days of early childhood. During this time, he also started drawing and sketching. His sketches were admired by everyone. As he grew up, nature continued to inspire him, and he started observing and reading more about birds, their habits and habitat.

In his early twenties, when he started working as a teacher teaching language and literature, he also started teaching art to children. Around this time, he started sketching birds. Initially, he was not quite impressed by the sketches, but motivated by his mother and elder sister, he started making new sketches. These were all pencil sketches of birds, which were coloured using colour pencils. After a few sketches were completed, the word spread and people came to know about the work of Mr. Mukherjee. Over the next 10-12 years, he went on to sketch about an incredible number of 500 different birds. This remarkable artwork has been exhibited in various places, schools, colleges and educational institutions, and has left one and all amazed at the brilliance of this unique nature lover. Besides the sketches of birds, animals, insects, flowers, trees and butterflies, he has also sketched animals in the form of cartoons for children.

Mr. Rajat Mukherjee is also a popular philatelist, numismatist and author. He writes regularly for many newspapers in India. He is also a translator and has some outstanding work on literature and translation to his credit. He loves teaching and is also an active social worker. Besides, he also pursues his passion for music as a Sarod artist.

Talking about the relevance of his unique artwork and his love for nature, Mr. Mukherjee says, “When I started working on birds beginning with closely observing them, initially it was quite easy to spot them. These days, one can hardly spot a variety of birds except for crows, sparrows and eagles. This is the scenario of a small town in India, I am not even talking of the cities.”

He further adds, “Forests are home to some of the most unique plant, animal and bird species. Today, the loss of forests has pushed many species to the brink of extinction. Forests are also the life support systems for the rural poor. Moreover, the forests purify the air that we breathe. So, it is high time that we address the issue of deforestation and take concrete steps towards environmental conservation.”

I am sharing pictures of few of his works here.

Humankind has come a long way since its genesis. Evolution, amalgamated with the catalysis of creation, has pushed us towards the boundaries that separate the human from the divine. If you take a human being from just a century ago and place them amidst the present world, they’d address our mastery over technology as magic. But, if you look beyond the veil of sheer capabilities, you’d know that it is not magic indeed. In fact, technology in our hands has been a curse for our Environment.

Human capability has grown in geometric progression over the past few centuries. Initially, the repercussions weren’t conspicuous. At a point of time in history, it came to be known to us all that technological growth, the way it was happening, would come at the cost of the future. Yes! The narrative displaced the impact sphere to a time that was yet to arrive. Nevertheless, as the scale of our impact magnifies, we are slowly experiencing the aftermath of our actions and decisions in the present itself.

Global Warming is no more a subject to be dealt with in the future. Environmental pollution is reaching its new peak every year. Climate change is being witnessed across the globe, creating excruciating droughts in the once most flourishing of lands, incomprehensible changes in weather and whatnot. The arctic ice is melting, as can be seen in the trending satellite snapshots on social media. We have poisoned our rivers, flooded our oceans with toxic waste, and razed our forests. We tend to sit within the comfort of our homes ignoring it all since we cannot truly realise that our true home, the Environment, is at stake. Ignorance, earlier, was a mistake. Now that we have a history to learn from, it is a choice.

We have been in an incessant pursuit of perfection. All the while, we have forgotten how incredibly perfect just the existence of our environment is. Earth exists due to a very improbable twist of fate. The environment that hosts us, the system of nature that prevails within it… was all utopian to begin with. This environment is also home to countless species of flora and fauna living on land and in water. We were entrusted with the responsibility to take care of it all as the so-called intelligent and sentient beings of Earth. But we have just proven to be otherwise. It is not that we lack the means to fix it. The power that we hold, the one that the beings of old would regard as sorcery, can be used to fix it all as well. We just need to stop ignoring the plight of the world. Our environment is crying for help. Ironically, the ones who can save it from us… is us. We failed to care for the future. We cannot fail to save our present. The time to make a change is now.

Gratitude is the seed of abundance. This grows as giant tree of prosperity in our life.

Gratitude makes the universe fall in love with you & looks after all your need like a mother.

When you pursue an act out of gratitude in your life, you get closer to creator. As you get closer to creator, you become more creative which expend your vision. When you find your vision, you get responsibly to create the ecosystem which will flip the coin of problems to solutions in the world.

WE live inside magical world of water, air, soil, fire, sky where millions & billions of species exist as life. This is why life itself is the environment. Environment runs on the ecosystem of universal synchronicity. Until & unless we will not educate our self about oneness, we cannot create love, peace & harmony which are the pillar of all ecosystem in the world.

Before we create better environment outside, we must create it inside since inside & outside environment is deeply rooted into each other. Gratitude is the first step to influence your inside environment where you simply need to be present. Being present leads you to be more positive, happy & cheerful.  Being present detaches you from being past or being future which can stop you from seeing the complete picture.When you are present, you are aware about your environment inside-out & become part of the ecosystem to make things better.

Our life is as sensitive as Dream which led by our deep emotions. Which is why we must learn to balance our emotion which changes the scenes of life? When we are more sensitive about each other’s inner environment, we are bound to create better environment outside for everyone. When we avoid the sensitivity inside-out the environment, we continue to get stuck in our fear, greed, anger, jealousy & ego.

Since life is not permanent in one body & keeps changing, we must learn to detach. Detachment can free our Spirit who becomes slave of our body & mind.

When we recognize the eco system for conflict, we are facing inside; we automatically better the environment outside.

When we ignore to better the environment inside, we fail to better the environment outside.

Our heart can guide us far better than our mind which can dominate & develop ego in us. When you pay attention to your heart more than your mind, you lead a better life & connect to millions & billions of hearts out there to create better environment.

Humans are not the only divine beings, all the beings are divine & they must be treated equally to balance love, peace & harmony which are the real eco system of the magical world we live in. Our friendly behavior can cause the effect of friendly environment. Our gratitude can help us see our divine qualities. As Vedas says – Yatha Dristi, Tatha Sristi – As your Vision, So is your World.

Wish you a Happy & Divine environment day!

Corporates by and large tend to view the living environment as a freebie, available for free exploitation. In operational decisions, finance and technology take precedence over protecting the environment.

However, ecological sustainability and protecting the environment become imperative when we realize our deep interconnection to the natural world. This awareness makes us realize that ecosystems can absorb only limited exploitation by humans. We also realize that actions of modern civilization threaten, at times irrevocably, planetary well-being. Ecologists have found that unbridled human economic activity has not just resulted in large-scale environmental degradation―in terms of reduced biodiversity, mass extinctions, rainforest devastation and climate change―but also pushed the biosphere far from its “natural” state.

The ethics of this philosophy holds that a whole system is superior to any of its parts, and that the world does not exist as a resource to be exploited by humans without restraint. The flourishing of non-human life forms on earth has as intrinsic a value as the well-being of humans on earth, and the value of non-human life forms is not to be measured in terms of only its usefulness to humans.

Deep ecology is born out of a deep concern with the worsening environmental crisis, the environmental havoc wrought by our civilization. It calls for nothing less than a complete revamp of the way humans live on the planet and our current world view―which is that we are the stewards of the world. Staunch ecologists affirm, “the arrogance of stewardship consists in the idea of superiority which underlies the thought that we exist to watch over nature like an authoritative middleman between the creator and creation.”

Deep ecology is an environmental movement conceived and initiated by a Norwegian philosopher, Arnie Naess, in 1972. Votaries of deep ecology hold the view that it is wrong to regard humans alone as unique creations of God. We are only an integral thread in the fabric of life. And if we and the planet are to survive, we need to adopt a less dominating posture towards the earth, at the same time respecting nature and the inherent worth of other life forms. Admittedly, this requires that we look beyond our restrictive, individual egos; our immediate family and concerns of daily living to the well-being of the whole ecosphere; encompassing plants, animals and the whole of the planet. Just as we wouldn’t harm ourselves, we cannot harm the planet either. We cannot continue to abuse the planet by our technology and our indifference. This is sound ecological wisdom that answers ethical questions about how we could live harmoniously on this planet and preserve the integrity and stability of this larger planetary community.

This new environmental ethics holds the core belief that like humanity, the living environment too has the right to live and flourish―a radical shift in humanity’s relationship to nature.

These views and concepts of deep ecology must indeed form the bedrock of environmental sustainability in the future.