Environment

Forests precede civilizations and deserts succeed them.

“The future of India hangs not in the political but in the physical balance………. the shape of things to come a couple of hundred years hence will depend on how we conserve our soil………… how, in short, we protect OUR FORESTS.”

—By Shankar Ranganathan

Bhagatji was extremely worried about the deteriorating environment. He had warned the nation almost 50 years back about the problems arising from deforestation, excessive use of petroleum products, exploding population and the need to conserve our water resources. Even today inadequate attention is being paid to these problem areas. There is an urgent need to plant more and more trees and make people aware about the worsening environment. Once he said, “I am more worried about environmental pollution than Pingalwara.”

K.M. Munshi writes that Matsya Purana says: “One who sinks a well lives in heaven for as many years as there are drops of water in it. But to dig ten such wells equals in merit the digging of one pond; digging of ten such ponds was equal to marking a lake; marking of ten lakes was as meritorious as begetting a virtuous son but begetting ten such virtuous sons had the same sanctity as that of planting a single tree.”

With global warming there is marked change in the weather. Gone are the days when a gentle drizzle would continue for many a days with the water slowly seeping into the mother earth. We can expect extremes of weather like sudden heavy downpours. The earth will not have enough time to soak the water. On the other hand more soil erosion can be expected.  Therefore, rain harvesting must take top priority if we want to prevent depletion of ground water.