Why are we at war with nature?

Hitesh Brahmbhatt/Borivali

I was on an outing to Chinchoti waterfall to see, learn and enjoyed the beauty of the nature — the mystifying weather, mist, milky waterfalls and green hills. We had a fantastic outing no doubt, but what I saw there made my blood boil.

All this was before we reached the milky waterfall flowing at such force that it looked like a still image. They were spectacular and contrasting against the black rock and green hills. There, we saw people having liquor, breaking bottles on the rocks near waterfall and stream. The plastic bottles and bags were just strewn around. On my way home, I was left wondering, 'are we so mystified and intoxicated by the nature that we have set out to destroy it?'

People who go to such places to get away from the madding crowd of Mumbai end up doing what they do in Mumbai — booze, eat and litter.

Do you have to disturb the peace of the surrounding to have a good time?

Is it not possible to satisfy our hunger without making a hell out of the place? Can't we have fun and leave a place without disfiguring it with plastic dishes, glass, wrappers, food packets and other non-biodegradable waste? May be we are naïve enough to think that the local corporation's waste collection van would collect the litter left behind in the middle of the jungle.

What I am narrating is not an isolated case. You can see similar examples everywhere, be it Sinhagad fort, Mulshi lake, Bushy dam in Lonavala, Khandala Ghat or Malshej Ghat. The situation is indeed pathetic.