Pollution

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

'Come my love, come to my village, you will breathe fresh air, pure as God’s breath’: the lover invites his city girl. Is it just pollution in the city air which she must leave behind for a brief while or there is something more in the village air for the lovers? May be the lovers think that since the industrial waste is not released into the crystal streams, factory fumes do not cloud the air, fields and orchards do not release particulate matter  the villages are healthier in their fostering care of human love. But go to any village you will see bikes, tractors, trucks, a few pumps and other diesel guzzling contraptions choking the air. The stubble burning before a new season of winter crops darkens the sky and poisons the air for at least a month. The beautiful nostrils of your love will start irritating in no time and she will sneeze her way back early.

Today all over the world efforts are being made to keep the city air clean, for, all cities are growing in population beyond the capacity of their territorial limits of sustainability. The technologically updated devices meant for comfort of the body emit gasses into the air which imperceptibly pollute the air. Pressure of ever increasing population leads to clearing of forests and transforming farm land, marshland and wasteland into concrete jungles. High-rise structures even block the skyline; the new generations of humans   see only the midday sun; the beauty of sunrise and sunset is only a text book experience for most of our city children. More people mean more roads, more factories, more busses trucks, more cars, more constructions and dust and more of lung diseases.

A month ago a very unsavoury scene was witnessed by the world in the Feroze Shah Kotla stadium. The Srilankan cricketers threw up in the field. The next day one or two Indian cricketers also vomited. It was due to polluted air they breathed. It slowed down their pace and choked their nose and throats. If this happens in an open cricket park in the capital of India, what about the other cities and towns where such things are the new normal?

Pollution is the price of civilization. All countries believing in unlimited growth, unlimited prosperity pay the price. Nothing is available in the world which does not come to its last cycle. And nothing comes free without exacting its price. But pollution is quite a heavy price to pay for evasive and evanescent pleasures of life. Nature sustains humanity but when the epitonic limits of nature’s tolerance is crossed nature fights for her own survival.

Civilization creates multiple levels of pollution. The ultimate pollution, however, is war. The wrongs pursued by civilizations often draw the battle lines. But before the kurukshetra happens man must learn to yield and bend a little. In other words man should give up some dream luxuries and comforts and opt for moderations in all spheres. The world can never become a heaven of plenitude. We must therefore settle for less. Our pace must cope up with the accommodative agreement of nature. We already suffer from other pollutions which are off shoots of our civilizational errors. Jealousy, revenge, intolerance and moral turpitude have already given us restlessness. To add to our psychic blues if the environmental pollution- a monster of our own making- chokes us to death, the failure of civilization will be a sad inheritance for our children. The future generations will never pardon us.

We multiply at will. We fight in the name of faith. We fell trees and burn forests for our ever expanding needs. The sky today is hole – dark. The earth is porous and hollow. Our seas are poisoned by our atomic tests. How long can we live with fossil fuel and the killer instinct? This earth has given us everything. Now it is payback time. The five elements of reality of which we humans are also composed must be saved. For that we have to curb our magnanimity a little and learn to live with less. If we distribute nature’s bounties without considerations of power (whatever be its form) between us and share all problems equally, nature will play the eternal mother and sustain us. But can man be so refined and good? Perhaps not. Therefore nature will make us good by using her tooth and nail.