One of my favourite columns which I read regularly in the weekend edition of Hindu is by Janaki Lenin. It comes once in a fortnight and she shares the experience of a researcher / naturalist who studies a particular bird or animal in their habitat.
She has a very beautiful way of writing - it’s almost like you are reading about a friend or family. She describes the approach and the reason for the researcher to get interested in a particular species & their behaviour and how difficult it is to be up close and personal with these animals. There are times in fact, most of the time, these young students will get up at 4 am and go in search of a bird or mammal or go into the river in search of a fish. Many times after 6 months they would have a sighting or they may come back empty handed.
But it’s not just students, the trigger for this note came from an article on nicobar long tailed macaques written by Ishika Ramakrishna. It must be a 1500 word article and beautifully captures her travel to Great Nicobar island and beautifully captures the island's micro-environment and the diversity of endemic plant, animal, insects & marine. It’s not just about macaques - it’s about an appreciation & holistic understanding of the fragile ecosystem. Everything will come to ZERO if the government’s plan to transform this into an international transhipment terminal, international airport etc.
The power of an idea comes only through storytelling - that’s when common people like me can feel deeply about what’s happening in our delicate biosphere and they help connect the dots.
And stories are that we need to save the world, not just data and good work.
Postscript:
The hindu article which I referred to above are only for subscribers :(
But you can read a few here.
https://m.thewire.in/byline/janaki-lenin
Ishika’s article here
https://roundglasssustain.com/species/nicobar-long-tailed-macaques (Explore the site it’s a hidden gem)
Read how melting of arctic ice,leads to flooding in louisana. (Also explore evoke which has some of the best articles on biodiversity)
No comments:
Post a Comment