WHERE WILL THE BIRDS SLEEP TONIGHT?











“A frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives.”
- American Indian proverb


But, a man does!

Last couple of days, there have been some new visitors in our colony: Snakes!

Now, you know how it is when we sight a snake – whether it is a cobra, viper, python or a rat-snake – in our colonies! As some remain busy with dialing the snake-catcher’s number or as some overzealous on-looker tries to either kill or shoo away the snake… some have already shot a video and it is ‘telecast’ in the society group. So, all of us, who are away from home, get to know the snake status…

“Is he still there?”… “Is he caught?”… “Is he killed?...  Is he gone?”

By the way, where will he go, if you chase him from our colony?

To the neibouring colony…

And, when they chase him from there?

To another colony, obviously...

Of course, if he is alive, that is. If he is caught by a responsible snake-catcher, perhaps, the snake may end up landing in a jungle or a zoo…

Nobody, normally, asks the question: “Where did he come from?”

Similarly, now and then, some monkeys visit our colony… and, we get to witness a similar buzz… Yes, monkeys are fun to watch unlike the snakes. But, nobody wants monkeys to stay here either. So, in a few hours or sometimes in few days, they go somewhere else…

One of the things that make my morning walks (Between 5 and 6.30) heavenly is the chorus of the birds which reside in the trees inside our colony. Time to time, our garden staff trims the trees in our colony… Some trees get completely stripped… and, none of us really ask: “What about the birds? Where will they sleep tonight?”

Whenever we read in the newspapers the report about a leopard or any other big cat loitering around a housing colony in any area in Mumbai, we don’t ask the question: “Why have they come here?”

I am not an environmentalist or an animal activist. I am as guilty as any of my fellow-humans are in making these fellow-creatures of our planet – homeless. I, too, do not want the pigeons to build their home right outside our windows… “They dirty the windows… They send stink…” Yes, I, too, say…

But, if I throw away their nest, eggs and little babies… where will they go?

Like others, I seldom ask…

God has given this planet to all – humans, animals, birds, snakes, insects, worms, trees, plants, grass, creepers and bushes… But, only, we humans seem to be so hell-bent in destroying the planet we live in…

True. Frogs do not eat up the pond they live in… We do!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: ScienceNews


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