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| Sunday, 8 May 2005 |
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View from above by Arefa Tehsin Somewhere near the heavens above, flying on the skies you realise how tiny the otherwise enormous wide world is. "You are flying at a height of 40,000 feet", says a thick and not so clear voice on the speakers. How powerful you feel looking at the mighty waves seeming like ripples, the unending plains so infinitesimal and the lofty mountains like mere toys. I returned from India this week and tried to observe both countries more closely from the plane. I could see the stark difference. Bombay, which has recently come to be known as Mumbai and Udaipur, which is my hometown, are the two places in India that I visited. As the plane takes its smooth turn in the sky and prepares to land in Bombay you see around you a concrete jungle, a maze of roads and flyovers with thousands of tiny cars sticking and rolling on them, glittering skyscrapers which do not live up to their name when you look down on them from the skies, ocean surrounding the city which seems to be shrinking from the uncontrolled 'growth'. Landing in Udaipur was a different story. Surrounded by the oldest mountain range of the world and called the City of Lakes, Udaipur, though being in the Desert State of Rajasthan, it is also called the second Kashmir. It is abounded by natural beauty and is adorned by grand palaces and rich heritage. Somehow I could not experience the serenity that I was so used to associating with it. The plane with its unforgiving loud noises prepared to land. Though there was not much habitation and concrete to be seen, in land seemed brown and barren at so many places with dug up large potholes. Those dents, bleak landscape and disfigured terrain were due to extensive mining. Udaipur is very rich in minerals, especially marble. The mining has affected the city so much that all lakes have dried up (there are five lakes in the city), vegetation has decreased and rains have gradually dwindled and almost stopped for the past decade. It rains and pours all around the city except for the catchment area. "Man is a complex being; he makes the deserts bloom and lakes die." Environmentalist Dr. Raza H. Tehsin has raised his voice against the unaccountable mining and says that due to the irresponsible marble mining a white sheet of particles has covered the city's surrounding area, which reflects the radiations back resulting in scanty rainfall. On my return to Sri Lanka from the aircraft I saw thick lush green lands with the canopies of coconut trees jotting out everywhere. India has 4.5 per cent of protected forest area including marine sanctuaries while Sri Lanka has 12.1 per cent of protected area. This is not so big a percentage and Sri Lanka should learn lessons from the mistakes of many a places in India in this regard. We value everything - above and below the earth or near and far from us - commercially. Uncut trees represent unused wood. Un-drilled crude oil represents wasted energy. "For the past 200 years we have been exploiting Nature, now we are beating it to death." Conservation to most is making sound bytes so that we can forgive our own guilt with a false sense of preserving the environment. Perhaps it is the environment that is preserving us, but until how long...
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