The
word ‘nature’ and its meaning can give us better understanding of some sociological
concepts like freedom, empowerment, unbiased, nonjudgmental, equality, prosperity
and coherence because intrinsically it carries fundamentals of these concepts. The social process such as cooperation, competition, assimilation,
accommodation and conflict can also be seen in the natural world where diverse
flora and fauna shares different elements of earth. A study was done in cancer
care hospital in Australia to understand the subjective experience of patients
with nature, where nature was found as empowering, connecting, supportive and normalizing.
However the un-natural or manmade interventions have always created conflicts,
devastation and destruction in the natural world and it has not only affected
single unit of nature but menace in the whole system. It has also affected our
social, economical, political and psychological aspect of our life. Take an example
of Assam communal violence of 2012 and 2014, where hundreds of Bangla speaking
Muslims has been killed due to natural resource holding (land) which further
influenced our political, economical and social psychology. Means the nature is
inherently connected to our every aspect of life but we are unable to
visualize.
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Photograph: 1- Bones of Dead Animal
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| Photograph:2- Dead Body of Animal with Entangled Polythene |
Today
on 25th of May, 2018, we (Asrarul Haque Jeelani and Shams Wadood) were
roaming in JNU campus in the morning, suddenly an idea strike in our mind to
visit JNU Lake. We tried to reach out lake through dense forest but failed and
then took help of Google map (JNU Lake coordinate: 28.540977, 77.162277). It
was mesmerising visuals near the lake and deep forest has made us free to think,
to have conversations on different topic. But a few meter ahead of lake we
found a dead body of an animal, probably Neel Gaay. The scattered bones,
dungs and other remnants parts of body were not inquisitive as a big entangled patch
of hundreds of polythene bags (Photograph:1 and 2) looks like stomach. A close observation
and discussion between us has made to understand that the bundle of polythene
bag would have stuck in the stomach. The Neel Gaay
might have ate these polythene and died (the reason can be this or something
else) due to starvation. According to Marine Conservation Society, animals that eat plastic bags feels " a false sensation of fullness or satiation" as the litter can stay in the stomach and lead to infection, starvation and death. The Neel Gaay in the campus can be seen in JNU campus now a day, however before 20-25 years ago it was rare and reason could be dense forest where they had ample natural space, one of my friends has shared this information. The forest area has been reduced and materialistic world has been reached to the natural world which made them to eat polythene and rappers. There are some evidences of immune and fertility loss in animals due to consumption of polythene, This may affect the population of the Neel Gaay in the campus and in the general marine creature those are on high risk.
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| Photograph:3- JNU Lake |
According to a report around 1400 marine species are affected by
the plastic. Even birds are on high risk as a research done in between 1982 to
2001 in Netherlands, has revealed that 96% of birds had plastic fragments in
their stomach. The question is who is responsible for this kind of polythenized
death of nature? The accused is Human and only human. We all know how many
polythene we used in daily activities even we have awareness of these hazardous
impact.
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| Photograph: 5 Observation of a plant |
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| Photograph: 4- JNU Lake |
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| Photograph: 5- Near JNU Lake |
References
1. Balaschke, S., O’Callaghan, C.
C., Schofield, P. & Salander, P. (2016), ‘Cancer Pateints’s Experiences with
Nature: Normalizing Dichotomous Realities’, Social Sciences &Medicine
3. https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/files/animal-cruelty/
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