Establishing harmonious relationship between man and nature

It is an age old maxim that Nature is our mother and if it is to be commanded, it must be obeyed. Nature binds truth, happiness and virtue together as by an insoluble chain but man’s ignorance of this immortal Nature is the only source of his unhappiness. Ever since his appearance on this planet, man has been using the priceless gifts of nature without restraint. He has rather taken them for granted. Seldom di4 he give thought to the fact that the supplies of air that he breathed, the water that he drank, the food that he ate and the industrial raw materials which he extracted from the bowels of earth might disappear one day. Nature had been suffering because of thoughtless human intervention in its recycling process for hundreds of years. The relationship between man and nature reflects profound changes in the wake of modem scientific and technological development. And here lies the cause for concern for the entire human race.

As they say, we have not inherited this earth from our ancestors but have borrowed it from our children. We are, therefore, obliged to preserve what Charles Darwin called “endless forms of most beautiful and most wonderful” for the benefit of future generations. But what is man doing to his Mother Nature today! The forests are being slaughtered mercilessly to satisfy the needs of the teeming millions. With the vanishing of the forests, the surroundings are becoming concrete jungles. Moreover; the protective ozone layer is also being depleted which is going to affect more than half of the world population; So desperate are we to enjoy our today that tomorrow does not seem all that important. What is worse is that we have criminalised society and the violence we unleashed on Nature has left its brutal scars on us as well. The pollution of Ganga by the emissions from the Barauni Refinery, the mass poisoning of fish in the Rhine, the contamination of lake in Switzerland, the industrial waters setting in Norway’s famous fjords are alarming signals for man to realise what he is doing to Nature and retrospectively to himself. It Is by now fairly evident that we are polluting our Nature on an unprecedented scale and wrecking it in a way that makes regeneration impossible. .As a result, the marvellous creatures and plants dependent on the rich nature are limping towards extinction amid man’s cruelty.

The progress of civilisation, no doubt, is to be measured in proportion to man’s success in meeting the challenges of Nature. But the developments in the fields of industry and technology the hallmarks of his material progress and prosperity are certainly a mixed blessing. Their side effects are surely, though gradually, affecting the environment, which in turn, endangers his very existence. So that is where we are a stage not of mutual existence with the nature but of mutual annihilation.

In the ultimate analysis, the problem of Natural degradation reduces itself to the question of re-ordering the relationship that has so far existed among the economic needs of man, the technological progress, and the nature but Nature, it seems is in no mood to stand any further abuses and excesses. And man has now realised that he has to work with it and he will never tolerate the rape of Good Earth any further. IL is, at this point, that his aesthetic instinct will come to his rescue. After all, he is bringing about industrial progress with the aim of making the world a better, more beautiful and more comfortable place to live in. People have now thought that there is no rational alternative to working together to bring about some. Improvement in the Nature so that we and our children can lead a healthy life.

In his mad race for power and prosperity with a feeling of shock and horror man is now aware of the fact that the Nature and its resources are vast but limited. He 1as realised that if the present trends are allowed to go unchecked, the future of life on earth will be endangered. Nature’s plentifulness is a heritage not to be squandered with impunity. It must be conserved. It is high time man does something before the unimaginable stage is reached when rivers will burn, fish will rot on the shores, trees will be their own ghosts and cities will be chocked with polluted and foul smelling air. Let’s all make joint ventures to make the Nature as pure as before and try to maintain the immortal relationship of mother and son between Nature and Man.