For the first time in the history of modern man, animals can roam around without the fear of being attacked by their big brother. Animals bear the brunt of man’s cruelty arising out of his ostentatious ways of living and false feeling of valor. But it is payback time today. He is being haunted – hunted? – by an invisible enemy and forced to confine himself within the four walls, with the fear for his life.
Hunting is a pastime for man but a matter of survival for the hunted down animals. These hapless creatures are attacked for satisfying man’s adventurous hobby of hunting. Animals are hunted down in their own wild-homes even when they do not cause any harm to man. The home of a famous Malayalam film actor was raided by the Income Tax Department sometime back, and they unearthed an ivory. In another incident, the muscle-man of Bollywood displayed his masculinity before his female co-artists by hunting down blackbucks. Examples of man’s cruel pastimes like these are many. All the ivories and animal-hides that are proudly displayed in the showcases might be grinning at men who are locked-down inside their homes, deservedly. Who has given man the right to hunt animals? Of course, nature did not.
There are many people whose ostentatious ways of living have telltale stories of animal slaughters. Shoes costing USD 2000 to USD 5000, made with hides of snakes and alligator! Branded handbags fetching anything above USD 1000, made of animal hides! I saw a report that Vietnam had alligator farms to produce hides for making shoes and handbags for a famous brand. I once met someone in Bolivia who owned an alligator farm that reared alligators solely for the purpose of supplying their hides for shoe-making by luxury brands. What a pity that all those shoes with blood-dried hides of animals are resting peacefully on shoe-stands and grimacing at man who is sitting locked-down with his barefoot. Who has given man the right to kill animals for his extravagant ways of living? Of course, nature did not.
Seventy percent of the earth is water, so I take the liberty to deduce that 70% of all the animals live in the waters. Humans form only small percentage, say, 5 of all the living organisms. It is estimated that man dumps more than 8 million tonnes of plastics into oceans every year!!The scenes of marine animals like turtles, whales, etc. getting killed and washed ashore from the plastic pollution are heartbreaking! How long this cruelty can be continued? Well, a study by an American institute across the globe shows that more than 80% of table salts have micro plastics. Leave this aside and look at the life-threatening impact of plastic use by humans on marine animals. Incidentally, a study by American scientists show that COVID-19 can stay alive on copper for 3 hours; cardboard for 24 hours; and PLASTICS for 3 DAYS! Why more time on plastics? Isn’t it a clear and dire warning from nature to man about the plastic-pollution arising from his unbridled and mindless use of plastics? It is, indeed!
Man is restless and complaining about being asked to stay indoors for 21 days! What about the animals who are permanently incarcerated at zoos? Why do we need zoos? Zoos are the places for man to roam around to kill his free time. In this process, he had killed many animals’ freedom of movement and the right to live at their natural habitat. Who has given man the right to incarcerate animals? Of course, nature did not.
How many animals had gone extinct due to human intervention! “Humans Caused 322 Animal Extinctions in Past 500 Years. Some 322 birds, mammals and reptiles all went extinct in just the past 500 years due to people, research shows,” according to Google. These species were made to permanently and irreversibly disappear from the face of earth by the greedy deeds of man.
As of today, science has not succeeded in creating a living organism out of an inanimate substance. There are talks that COVID-19 was created by man. When such news are in the air, many people misunderstand that man is capable of creating a virus or a living organism on his own. He is not! What scientists do is that they try to create a new living organism by making hybrid of two or more living organisms. Barring this genetic tweaking, creation is out of man’s space. So let us be clear that man is not capable of producing a living organism out of an inanimate thing though he can kill a living organism to make it inanimate. If man cannot create a living organism, how can he justify making animals go extinct? Nature is watching these injustices being meted out by man to the fellow creatures!
I think COVID-19 is a warning to man by nature. I have unleashed a virus, nature says, that is less fatal though highly contagious to convey a message that man needs to coexist with other creatures of mine. I made you superior, nature continues, to other creatures not to dominate them but to coexist with them without being inferior. And if you continue to abuse the natural food cycle and kill my creatures for hobbies and ostentatious ways of living, I will unleash even more deadly virus that will be not only highly contagious but also unimaginably fatal!
We need to listen to this warning from nature. Governments across the globe must ban hunting, make it illegal to use animal parts for making human dresses and fashion accessories, close down zoos, ban plastics that can not be recycled and limit human excesses resulting in extinction of animals. It looks like COVID-19 is the last warning from the nature. And we better heed it, or nature will weed us out.
Nowhere Perspectives 