Earth has many self-regulating living communities,
interrelated and nestled in her lap, in the form of plants,
animals, and humans. She is our source of life, nourishment, and learning and
provides everything we need to live well. 15 million species of plants and animals have
been discovered so far, including humans that inhabit Mother Earth and many
more are still being discovered.
Every living community play different roles, which
allow them to live harmoniously without causing an imbalance within them. Just as
human beings have human rights, all other beings also have rights, which are
specific to their species; a fixed role and function within the communities in
which they exist.
Sadly, enormous changes are happening within human society,
over the last several decades. Human society has begun to dominate for the sake of
money and power, and its capitalist promotes all forms of depredation,
exploitation, abuse, and contamination causing great destruction, degradation, and disruption, much against the laws of Mother Earth. All this destruction of
our once peaceful planet is endangering life as we know it: today at risk
through climate change. As Friedrich Nietzsche puts it: “the world is beautiful but has a disease called man.” Perhaps he
is right! Because we humans feel that we are
the absolute owner of the earth, therefore gradually we started to take it for
granted and to abuse it, sometimes knowingly, sometimes unconsciously.
Mother Earth is suffering terribly and is on the
brink of extinction. Like a baby needs its mother to survive, all
creatures of this planet need a healthy Mother Earth to survive. If we wish to lead a healthy, harmonious life, we
must first tend to our sick mother and work to help her recover and restore
her back to good health.
The teachings of His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, my root guru
enlightened me with this knowledge or importance of the mother earth, who has
set out his great mission to conserve Mother Earth and H.H has been actively
involved in a worldwide movement to draw attention to this global environmental the challenge since last many years. Fortunately, I got an opportunity to join the NCF
(Nature Conservation Foundation) family. This exposure brought me much closer
to nature through its unique conservation education programs,
specifically in July 2009, when Dr.Pranav Trivedi our education outreach took
me along with him to Spiti to attend the Nature education camp. I learned for
the first time to stay in solitude with nature. Subsequently, my awareness of
nature in more detail started with the
first batch of students who came from Kibber School to attend the nature
camp for 3 days at beautiful place Chhomoling
(Kibber Spiti) in which I was also one of the students amongst them. Since then my
joyful nature journey began. NCF helped
me develop my critical capabilities; I could gain practical information and
derived inspiration and at the same time enjoyed the experience. When these and many other observations crystallized
in my mind, I felt really grounded from nature study from my usual unacquainted
mind.
My lack of education and narrow knowledge of my
odd perspective in the past has been a barrier to expressing my views about nature. But, joining NCF I became confident, as we are
the people who are most closely associated with nature. We derive our basic day
– to – day need from nature. I
never knew before that nature has always been very kind to us. We live on Mother
Nature, or rather we are part of Mother Nature. We use natural yields as if we
are the only owner of it. We have been
leading our life blindly with this sort of bad influential greed and ego. We have been taking advantage of Mother
Nature’s benevolence limitlessly, for such a long time, lives afterlives.
Nevertheless, we never realize our responsibility to take care of our mother, as
our ego is so strong, beyond control we think we are the only owner of nature and
we have full right when it comes to the ownership of the world and the earth's
resources, by abusing the environment.
I
learned in an intimate way, from keen curiosity, combined with long hours
spent outdoors at Chomoling
for continuously 14 days. I gained experience by just pursuing my inclinations through
the guidance of the ideal Dr. Pranav le education module and instantly I pledged
that I will disseminate this great message to my fellow Ladakhi too in the
future. The principles of life, previously mere broad abstractions to me, became
clear. I would like to thank you Dr. Pranav le for giving me such a golden
chance and for bringing me more
closer to nature This experience has been a great turning point in my life.
Ladakh
and Spiti lies in the nestling of the Himalaya with its very own unique heritage and
system. It is therefore important that nature education programs and nature
interpretation programs be organized more frequently in the nook and corner of such
heritage centers and Schools. Such a program is immensely required for the
younger and all generation to constantly remind their very own responsibility
to preserve the heritage of the fragile eco-systems here. Climate change has
taken a toll on the Himalayan environment. We have already started experiencing
the impacts of this disaster. We experienced a major flash flood in Leh 2010
and recently this year in my native village Gya in the month of July 6th
2014. We also constantly read about
glaciers melting at a faster rate. We are responsible for such disastrous
conditions of Mother Nature. As His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa said;
“Environmental preservation is self-preservation”. It is important to and is urging the need to take
decisive and collective action to transform structures and systems that cause
climate change and other threats to Mother Earth. This must happen universally
and all nations of the world should collaboratively take responsibility. How we use natural resources will decide how
life in the future fares on this planet. Mother Earth can remain rich and
healthy only if we all act, fast in our own lives and collectively as a society
by thinking globally and acting locally; as responsible citizens. Let’s
celebrate equally in a practical way to save our precious mother, for if she is
well, all is well!
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