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ShareLooking down at the patch of mangroves skirting the creeks that carry the Arabian Sea inward into Mumbai city, I could not help thinking how pretty it was. Like a mossy carpet of green, I thought, trying to be poetic.
But really, how we look at something depends so much on how much we know.
Not many years ago, I remember seeing a mangrove patch for the first time and thinking what a dirty, swampy place it was. They are not even trees, I thought to myself; just stunted shrubs. Why does someone not pull them all out and let the water become clean. I am aghast at how little I knew then about the fantastic role mangroves play in ecology.
But I am not alone.
Last week I was in Bangalore, sitting in the imposing hall of the Bangalore Club. Looking down at me were a series of sepia faces of very propah past presidents of the club. Another wall was decorated with an interesting array of armoury, and then my eye caught the whitened skull of a stag over the doorway. It gave me a start. But there was worse to come. The corridor beyond had a full standing leopard that had been subjected to a taxidermist's ministrations. And to add further shock were the black and white photos of successful hunters with their guns and their prey!
Somewhat environmentally incorrect, I thought, in these times when the world is beginning to wonder if the Indian tiger will go the way of the dodo and big cats are among the most threatened species, in this country at least. But again, the Bangalore Club is not alone.
There are, across India, countless institutions that still live in the times of the Raj, and display the trophies erstwhile, and now long dead, members had bagged. Nothing wrong in trying to create a bit of ambience, but I wonder how many young people will be inspired into carrying a rifle, grabbing a ride in an open 4X4, and heading into the woods to prove how macho they are in shooting a defenceless animal with a weapon that can be fired from a safe, unseen distance. I am not imagining this, there are enough cases still pending against celebrities who have acted just in this manner to justify my fear.
I do think we need to look again at some of the concepts and habits we have ingrained into our way of life. An ad on TV that shows man taming the donkey to draw a wheeled cart for the first time in human history has a line that says, 'Donkeys are not meant to be beasts of burden.'
It is an eye-opener that might surprise the few who think the line over. But surely in these times of automated vehicles we don't need to whip a bullock into pulling loads through congested roads? Or, for that matter, wear coral jewellery, or fur coats, or all those many things that have cost the existence of entire species? Worth a thought!
