The Sahara |
The Past:
Man in the current genetic form evolved on this earth some 200,000 years ago in Africa, where the current Sahara desert is found. Then, after spreading over the regions which are now the deserts of Egypt, Libya, Sudan, etc., he came out of the African continent and established the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, Yellow River Valley of China, in addition to the Egyptian civilization. Most of these sites of ancient civilizations are now desert lands. After those ancient civilizations, the two major religions of the world, Christianity and Islam, also evolved in the regions that are now the deserts of present-day Israel and Saudi Arabia. Human activity since the ancient ages, right from Man’s origin, was in areas which are now deserts in spite of them being on the river valleys. It is extremely unnatural to have deserts on the banks of such vast rivers. Wherever we humans have lived in large numbers, we have turned those lands into deserts! The map below and this very earth is clear proof for this serious allegation on Mankind.
Ancient Civilization Locations |
Historically Man has exploited the natural resources for his convenience. He has cut the trees to burn and build, thereby extinguishing micro fauna; he has mined the sand and driven the rivers to go underground; hunted and killed the mega fauna; reduced life to almost zero and has moved on, leaving the deserts behind.
It is extremely unnatural
to have deserts on the banks of such vast rivers. Wherever we humans have lived in large numbers in the past, we
have turned those lands into deserts!
The Present (It is Worse):
Unfortunately, this is not the case
with ancient days alone. Over the last 500 years, forest cover on the earth has
been reduced by 80 percent. Even more pertinently, across the last four decades
alone, human population has doubled, but the number of bugs, beetles, worms and
butterflies (micro fauna) has declined by 45%, says Rodolfo Dirzo, a professor
of biology at Stanford University. It is as if we simply have a license to
kill.Vegetation and micro fauna is the
base for the rest of life on this earth. If there are no micro fauna, the birds
will starve to death, and without vegetation the mega fauna that feed on it and
their predators shall perish. Deforestation and defaunation are the first signs
of desertification and Desertification
is a process parallel to the extinction of life. Now there is every
possibility that soon most of the earth will be in deserts. This can happen
quite soon.The present day population is at
least a hundred times the population of the period of the ancient civilizations
of Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc., referred to earlier and today’s methods of
agriculture are even more destructive for the natural flora and fauna, and
their destruction is happening at a much faster scale.
At a tangible scale:
While
life on earth came to this earth 3.6 billion years ago, it is just over the
last 2, 00,000 years that Man has evolved. On another scale, if we consider the
time since the evolution of life till date as one year, then in that scale Man
has evolved just 30 minutes ago, the 500 years that has seen 80% deforestation
is 4.35 seconds, and the last four decades that has seen 45% loss of micro
fauna is just 0.35 seconds. The destruction is clearly exponential and tending
to become instantaneous in the time scale of the universe. It is as if Man is a huge meteor that has hit this earth.
Repeated extinctions:
Earth
has faced extinction of life five times through these mass extinctions:
1. The Cretaceous-Tertiary
2.Triassic-Jurassic
3. The Permian
4. The Late Devonian; and
5. The
Ordovician-Silurian.
Life has
come back each time. The next mass extinction, if proper care is not taken,
will be #6. Manmade and we will not
know if this kind of life can come back.
However, there is a brighter side, too. Man, with his enormous intelligence, has
accumulated vast knowledge and survival skills. Man has developed advanced
technologies that can be put to work both ways that is to help life survive or
make it perish.
This
writer has been involved in the process of forestation as a profession for the
last twenty years, and this is a report on the efforts made in the process, the
results obtained, and his humble thoughts on how to reverse the ongoing
desertification of this earth.
Reversal of desertification:
The
clear signs of reversal of desertification will be:
1.
Increase in the ratio of fresh water to
sea water, leading to more rains and bigger rivers.
2. Increase
in flora through forestation.
3. Enhancement
of fresh water resources and rising of the groundwater level.
4. Arresting
of the process of depletion and even extinction of various species of fauna.
5. Arresting
the increase of certain species like rodents and the disease carrying
ectoparasites.
And how:
Out of EQUVALITY, LIBERTY AND FRATERNITY, the LIBERTY is over exploited. The plough and the tilling tractor kill more than bullets and bombs.
Desertification
can be reversed by applying these basic principles:
1. Among
the three foundations of the French revolution that has boosted this modern
civilization, LIBERTY is over exploited.
2. Man
is not the owner of this earth and has no right to destroy vegetation and micro
fauna.
3. Land
owner should not have the freedom to do anything that he wishes with the land.
4. The
land that is under agriculture should be reduced at least by a half.
5. Irrigation
and modern technology should be used for forest growth also.
6. Farms
should have substantial permanent vegetation and the practice of “all in all
out” should stop.
7. The
plough and tilling tractor kills more than bullets and bombs.
8. Radical
changes are needed in agricultural practices to reduce the area and increase the
yield per unit area.
While these principles are firmly believed by this
writer, they are contested and disagreed by many. A lot of time, energy and
trials are needed to prove these principles and a lot more to implement them.
This paper is restricted to prove the 7th point above and here it
is.
Out of EQUVALITY, LIBERTY AND FRATERNITY, the LIBERTY is over exploited. The plough and the tilling tractor kill more than bullets and bombs.
KILLING TILLERS
The plough and the tillers kill more than bullets and bombs.
At the end of summer the farmer keeps
his plough and oxen ready and at the first rain he starts tilling his land. The
bigger farmers do the same with their mighty tractors. The tilling is done:
1. To uproot all the vegetation in the farm – generally called as weeds and hereinafter called as flora
2. To kill all the bugs, bees, beetles and butterflies– generally called pests and hereinafter called 4B, along with their eggs and larvae
3.To loosen the soil. In two weeks after the first rains, all the farmlands are tilled, except the bunds over which the sheep and the cattle graze.
1. To uproot all the vegetation in the farm – generally called as weeds and hereinafter called as flora
2. To kill all the bugs, bees, beetles and butterflies– generally called pests and hereinafter called 4B, along with their eggs and larvae
3.To loosen the soil. In two weeks after the first rains, all the farmlands are tilled, except the bunds over which the sheep and the cattle graze.
When all the farm lands are freshly
tilled, it is a nice scene with freshness all around. But over these acres of
lands lies millions of dead flora and the 4B and their eggs and larvae are
getting roasted under the sun to become manure for the crops the farmer will
plant. Millions of deaths have taken place for each poor farmer’s need and
billions of deaths have taken place for every rich farmer’s greed (as in
mechanized maize farms extending over kms). This massive killing is the effect
of tilling.
In addition to mother Earth, every follower of Mahaveer Jain and every naturalist, or even the most selfish person, would cry over this mass killing, when considering the points below.
© Copyright 2014 Venugopal V.R. All rights reserved.
In addition to mother Earth, every follower of Mahaveer Jain and every naturalist, or even the most selfish person, would cry over this mass killing, when considering the points below.
Mother Earth, if she had life, a heart
and eyes would definitely cry over these killings as millions of her children
are killed. Any follower of Sant Mahaveer Jain or any naturalist too would cry
over this mass killing. Apart from sentiments, considering the points made
earlier, any scientifically educated person or even a very selfish person who can understand
the concept, will cry over it.
1. After the tilling, when it rains,
again the fresh water precipitation just goes underground.
2. Till the farmer’s sowings sprout
and grow up, the water continues to go underground. This flow into the ground
does not simply stay there but by gravity sinks deeper and reaches the sea.
3. For a period, as long as the crop
stands in the field, there is absorption by the plants and transpiration,
sending some of the water to the atmosphere in the day to precipitate as dew in
the night. But in a few months after the crops are harvested, the land becomes
barren and any rainfall or dew just sinks into the ground and reaches the sea.
4. If the land was not tilled at all,
the flora would immediately absorb the rainfall and keep on sending it to the
atmosphere, which would return as dew and rainfall.
5. This recycling of fresh water above
the surface makes it cumulative and results in growth of big trees, which store
even more water and keep returning it, thereby increasing the surface water.
6. Sans this tilling, the 4B thus left
alone would flourish and be good food for the birds, and their eggs would be
food for reptiles which also will flourish. The flora that flourishes will be
food for the mega fauna. This is the natural cycle of life on this earth.
7. Sans tilling, the ground will be
firm and less water will go underground due to increased fresh water in the air,
as well as in the plants and trees, and the rainwater would flow on the surface
resulting in streams, lakes and rivers.
8. Should the tilling continue the
enhanced flow of fresh water into the ground and into the sea will keep
reducing the fresh water on the surface and, therefore, the rainfall and the
dew. Finally, the water that evaporates from the sea will be the only source of
fresh water.
Now coming to the interests of the ‘Selfish
Person’ who is not bothered with the flora and fauna, the point #8 mentioned
above, creates a situation where only lands that are blessed with storms coming
from the sea will get rainfall and in other areas the rainfall reduces to a
trickle.
This simply is the desertification
caused by the plough and the tiller, which starts at killing flora and the 4B
and ends killing selfish Man as well.
“This has actually happened over the
last forty years in a small village in Kolar dist of Karnataka, that is under
study by me, as I come from this village.
Forty years ago, there were open wells with fresh water from a depth of
20 feet below the surface of the ground. After the constant tilling of the land
extended to more areas over the last four decades, there is no water even in 2000 feet deep bore wells. Then there
used to be dew drops in the mornings on every leaf of the beetle-leaf garden.
Now neither are the gardens there, nor are there any dew drops. There are only
dues in the banks and drops in the eyes.”
© Copyright 2014 Venugopal V.R. All rights reserved.