Sunday, February 16, 2003		Books

One with the world
Rajnish Wattas

Heaven and Earth and I: Ethics of Nature Conservation in Asia.
Edited by Vivek Menon & Masayuki Skamoto. Penguin Enterprise. Rs 250. Pages 201

"Made of flesh and bone, we are just different in appearance. Sharing the same ancestor, we are the same in nature."

IT would be a lonely planet and a terrible one if there was no wildlife. Imagine life, if one had to suffer only the company of one’s fellow human beings.

Although ancient wisdom, folklore, philosophies and religious texts of the East are rich with details of man’s happy co-existence with birds, animals and other living beings, such co-existence is rare these days. Man is plundering the natural heritage of the world for greed or reasons of economic exploitation. The irony is that the developed nations — who have done the maximum exploitation — give sermons to and pressurise developing Third World nations on issues relating to conservation.

Even international laws and treaties are heavily tilted in favour of the ‘haves’ and against the ‘have-nots’, who in spite of their poverty still have conservation ethics enshrined in their cultures.

This book edited by Vivek Menon and Masayuki Skamoto is a profound, yet delightful anthology on the ethos of conservation in Asia.

"This book is a fascinating journey across Asia that presents a lucid argument for conservation according to the religious and philosophical beliefs that permeate the region. Each chapter deals with a particular nation, and.... expounds the distinctive nature of conservation in their respective societies."

It is interesting to learn that "major religions like Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism have influenced the movement in different Asia countries from Thailand and Sri Lanka to Jordan and Israel, and how this compares with the animistic traditions of countries like Mongolia."

In fact the book’s poetic title, Heaven and Earth and I, is the heading of one of the chapters in the anthology, contributed by a Chinese conservationist. It is indeed unfortunate that China like modern-day Japan, is one of the biggest plunderers of natural heritage.

It’s amazing that ancient people were well-versed with the ecological wisdom that modern science is discovering only now. Like so many leaves on the tree of life, each organism, whether macro or micro, serves a vital function in our complex ecosystem. That function alone vests each species with a divine right to exist."

There are some interesting revelations. Mongolia, usually known as the land where the fierce raiders and conquerors who marauded India originated, has a rich folklore of conservation. Not surpsringly, Mongolia means, ‘the land of blue skies." And its people from ancient times have addressed, the sky as ‘Great Father Sky’ and the land as ‘Mother Earth’.

"This deep ecological awareness is basically spiritual in nature; it recognises that other forms of life on earth (and thus their well-being) have intrinsic value and inherent worth regardless of their ‘usefulness’ for people. It further recognises that human beings are only one particularly strand in the web of life and call for a paradigm shift from anthropocentric to eco-centric."

Although the book is not an academic treatise on conservation reading it is valuable and delightful as it recalls man’s link with Mother Nature and all living things:’ A well-produced volume, it contains exquisite sketches and parables on conservation from various parts of Asia which serve well to break the monotony of the text.

May this beautiful and timely compendium of essays on conservation re-connect us with ‘heaven, earth and we’.