Analogy Aliens & Terrestrial Intrusions

The search for the esoteric aliens is an ongoing human endeavour, it is terribly exciting and completely trespasses boundaries of our imagination mired in colourful garb of cosmic dust. There is a wild goose chase for discovering alien life. The UFOs have taken us by storm, and the mysterious objects continue to enamour through the media.  Star Wars has completely engulfed our mind with highly evolved aliens travelling through the vast void that is the cosmic space in spaceships that are in-comprehensive for our mental faculties. They appear less destructive and often friendly and human. We have been brainwashed by exploits of Superman saving humans. He is from the outer space a different World. Superman has been able to conjecture a friendly image of superior aliens contrary to what we may experience in reality....if ever.     

Most of us have either not read or forgotten the War of Worlds by H.G. Wells and live in a Utopian dream of discovering benovalent extra-galactic life.

We are not alone! Ha!  

But do we realise the consequences of coming in contact with highly evolved extraterrestrial creatures. The event could be disastrous and may lead to extreme subjugation and even complete annihilation of man kind.

Lets draw an analogy in order to come to some startling facts and consequences that between exploratory humans with high technological abilities and resources and the less able.    

The exploratory quests or conquests have taken place throughout the recent history with objective being economic loot, missionic zeal and eventual settlement. The search for spices seems benign to the common man - a historical perspective that is completely misleading. 

We are well aware of what transpired under the guise. 

The arrival of Christopher Columbus on the North American shores and subsequent colonisation was by no means  a favourable event for the indigenous communities as we know very well. The  Spanish conquest of Southern America, the colonisation at hands of European powers not forgetting the sufferance for centuries in India and perhaps elsewhere at hands of Central Asian marauders - an extension of vicious and overpowering Arab Imperialism of that time.  

The indigenous communities or locals have been brutally ravaged and plundered by these incursions, their culture and religious identities have been completely or partially destroyed by the constant proselytism and foreign ideologies and cultures imposed hopelessly out of sync with indigenous historical evolution. Some were turned into economic slaves and exploited mercilessly for ages. The rest is scripted in the annals of history often containing badly eroded and manipulated facts. The passing of time has lead often to complete amnesia regarding ones roots and cultural/religious past. (But to be fair there have been instances of arrivals being inclusive or less destructive or even completely benign).

The events have been the harbinger of incorrigible instinctive slave mentality. The altered demographics have been instrumental in creating divisive tendencies between people of same genome and has often resulted in continued bloodshed and eventual division of lands. More so the impact of these conquests are still continuing in one form or other Worldwide creating constant upheavals. 

In short a heavy price has been paid by the locals due to the incursions of terrestrial aliens. Why all this will not happen with the arrival of extraterrestrial beings who can travel through bizarre incomprehensible maze of cosmic pathways from distance ranging from few to many extra galactic scales uncountable light years away. This certainly leads to them being highly evolved. 

The disparate technological superiority, advanced mental and physical abilities of aliens will result in complete subjugation of human society totally enmeshed in internecine conflicts. We will be like sitting ducks enslaved, exploited, subject to epidemics caused by foreign microbes, raped, plundered or even subject to genetic intrusions. 

Are we prepared? 

In spite of the technological advances we have yet not been able to explore our own Universe forget about reaching the extra-galactic cosmic realms. Our weapons may prove to be Diwali crackers whence faced with  those yielded by intruders from superior civilisations. Actually our imagination limit is the only succour at our disposal if we think of being attacked by aliens with violent or ravaging dispensation.        

Further!

Look what we have done to our natural World, the environment we have inherited, millions of beleaguered life forms facing mass extinction. The World anyway is slowly dying thanks to destruction of  habitats and the ecosystems contained within, the resultant climate change, water and food shortage, pollution and more is destroying us albeit slowly.  

With humans exploiting every inch of land as population grows, industrialisation advancing rabidly, improper resource utilisation taking place, and worst our greed for amassing wealth - the future of the Earth is doomed. Armageddon has become a reality.

Then why fear the aliens whence we have inherited such deadly instincts?                 

The inevitable will happen and the only recourse for us is to build new colonies on other inhabitable planets till we destroy that as well.                  

The Vanishing Leopard in India

The Vanishing Leopard 

Green Energy & Conservation: A New Paradigm For Inclusive Growth

In case of India the five year plans have to be comprehensive in true sense as we have a vast assemblage of the down trodden living below the poverty line.  Informal economy limits the playing fields to the rich and the fortunate. Our Nation comprises of diverse human profiles subsisting on all steps of the economic ladder, unfortunately it is busting at its seams lower down. Hence all should benefit from economic endeavours of the State.  

In current scenario dominated by impending climate change or global warming economic planning has to be circumspect - discouraging unfriendly practices. This makes tackling inequity a challenging task as lot of old norms the unfriendly practices which are causing environmental disturbances have to be done away with. The old practices have to be conducted in a greener way or completely abundant hence innovation & technology has to step in. Greater stress has to be placed on cottage industry especially those pertaining to production of endemic specialities, and arts and crafts. Global appeal has to be created for indigenous production especially from the rural sector. This means induction of innovative practices and contemporary technologies at grass root level for production of globally acceptable products. 

Sound policies also means greater stress has to be placed on education and instilling technological proficiency amongst our masses. Education can be the biggest poverty alleviation instrument besides being helpful in eliminating social evils and conservatism - both are the need of the hour. Without tackling these it is difficult to come out of economic quagmire that the developing country like ours faces.           

Alternative energy is one of the positive sources which could solve our energy crisis in a friendly manner. It can also be instrumental in alleviating poverty by providing fuel at lower cost. Alternative energy would be an indirect and direct growth boosting factor. It has to be seen what policies are shaped by Governments in India to encourage generation. The majority of sufferers from polluting environment are living below the poverty line in India. Hence improvement in quality of life in the country should not be a top down approach it should be the reverse.            

The scourge of developing economies is rabid industrialisation, a haste that creates lot more problems and solves  less. In order to achieve a rapid growth detrimental aims and objectives are unthinkably pursued which cause lot of environmental distress besides social injustice to local residents (sometimes).

Highly impressive economic growth does not mean production of unmanageable numbers of luxury cars or extensive stressful housing complexes. This is what years of faulty planning and myopia has led us into. Ill planned industrial complexes near urban areas are major cause of  pollution leading to unmanageable health problems that large cities in India are facing.   

In order to feed the ever growing millions we have ravaged our forests and other fragile ecosystems due to fast expanding agricultural fields, commercial wood logging,  and livestock without a second thought. Though with the creation of protected areas the rot seemed to have stemmed but this is not the case everywhere. Primal land is still being targeted for economic gains and this spells bad conservation policies.       

Improper utilisation of land at the cost of last remaining natural places, valuable resources and our inherited wealth are the damage rabid industrialisation does besides releasing large amounts of pollutants in the air.

We have become a human centrist society, and completely disregard nature and other life forms. Habitat destruction has been the norm since times immemorial and continues till this day. Most of the conservation efforts remain on paper, are poorly implemented and some die unheard due to legal entanglement. In a fast developing India this seems to a sector of least concern. Hence to many of our policy makers environmental concerns especially that relating to our remaining natural lands and wildlife conservation has no importance or perceived as conservationist nuisance. Even for the ruling Governments this has no place as populist policies are of prime importance for remaining in power. The gain is that of mega corps with paltry benefit to those employed. Corporate influence on Governing bodies is well known, and this is what does the utmost damage. Industrialist gauge their profits from mega projects and totally ignore environmental factors.       

Unchecked population growth is another factor that is proving detrimental to environment besides increasing poverty in India. Although active efforts have been in this direction since decades but we are still heading to the most populous status on Earth. Hence we are eventually going to leave more carbon footprint on Earth that others.     

In order to undo what missteps we have taken in the past with grave consequences we will have to restart from step one with an out of the box thinking. 

Vendor Politics - All Professions Are Respectable

Ridiculing a person for his profession in a classist manner using cheap invective is unbecoming of National level parties. This is not surprising at all since the citizens are very much aware of the degraded level of vote politics being played in the country. The people look forward to a strong opposition in the parliament as a means to strengthen democracy and not a grouping of people indulging in populism and unruly behaviour. 

This is also suggestive of the kind of people that come forward to manage the affairs in India. Well this certainly does not apply to one and all since there are many politicians of unquestionable repute in this country. But it is the proportion that matters, the participants with despicable thoughts, inclined towards corruption and are bound to be inefficient, roost the rule. This augurs bad for the country which is the largest democracy with a highly stable structure.    

Resorting to personal jibes in a manner not befitting of seasoned politicians has been a norm lately. The issue based approach does not apply to the politicians in this country. In their overzealous attempt to usurp political power all civilities are kept asunder much to the horror of the common man who is certainly not impressed.    

Opprobrium of lowest level are the highlights of the political campaigns. Insidious remarks, lowly vilification and slander marks the election campaign.

Nowhere is there an effort to bring forth issues that relate to the country neither is there an effort to highlight winning policies that the Nation desperately needs to come out of the quagmire of extreme poverty, illiteracy and phenomenal number of social anomalies that prevail. 

The meme deriding the "chaiwala" trade of our Prime Minister is nothing but a display of absolute arrogance. People in professions pertaining to small scale economy should not be an object of ridicule. To survive not all citizens of this country would be involved in professions pertaining to economy of high end scales. The instance is nothing but a National disgrace and people behind the episode should be taken to a severe task so that there is no repeat.

The apology does not mitigate the insult that has arisen out of this episode towards a person at an utmost respectable post. And if the instance has emerged from right under the nose of top figures in the party, it certainly would prove to be a negative impact on the outcome of the recent elections to be held.   

The ruling polity defines the meme as classist and anti poor and why not. Deriding a profession which appears lowly to some speaks only of an attitude not befitting politicians who could be managing the country in the future or are already doing it.

I think this embarrassing episode should remind politicians where they are heading. Citizens look desperately towards the country managers for solutions that would mitigate tremendous problems and difficulties that the common man is experiencing even after seventy years of independence.    

Padmavati - A Case of Surpassing Artistic License?

Well the title does not tells the truth, as the film has not been screened to the public. I have not seen it. May not see it, since I do not see films..often. 

Only a handful of people probably journalists and politicians have seen the film. A journo article I was reading in the local Hindi daily was nothing but praise for it. He was privileged enough to have attended the closeted premier. 

No one it seems has been able to gauge  the reason behind the eruption of massive protests in Rajasthan as well as all over the country. This keeping political opportunism aside. 

The one primary reason that I seem to understand is that the eruption of protests against the film as the Queen - adored by all of us - is being projected on the screen, perhaps relegating her to a commoner status. No one in his right mind would like the personae to be seen dancing or frolicking about like a commoner. This may sound chauvinistic but the sentence bespeaks true emotions of the masses of which I am one. But of what I have heard so far such sequences have been presented in a sanctified manner in the film?   

Another reason for the protests could be apprehension that the artistic license could have been crossed over surpassing the limit. Rumours always acerbate issues which is in the case of the film Padmavati.      

The media makes matter worse in spite of playing the constructive role of an eye opener and an educator. The puerile debates like questioning the very existence of the honourable queen is itself provoking.  

Sometimes Hindu Nationalist or Right bashing appears that Hindus in general are being subjected in guise for a gleeful ridicule. This is the work of pseudo secularist and opportunists with communal bend of mind.    

In democracy the right to protest is very much apparent, but violence and threats have no place in a civilised society.  People of this country should adopt a very broad and rationalistic outlook shunning aside old ideologues and dogmas impractical in the contemporary world.

But then there is an audience limit as is the artistic or expressive limit of the authors and creators. If you err by hurting sentiments of people by going recklessly overboard it could result in chaos, loss of life and property and what not.

I hope great director that Sanjay Leela Bhansali is has not erred, and has been circumspect enough in projection on the screen truth nothing but the truth.       

Tiger in India: A Species Invasion?

Tiger Pic Mukul Yadav

Species Invasion 

Or is it an invasive species? The tiger I mean!

From the cold confines of Siberia in the Palearctic region the tiger migrated into India about ten thousand year back. This happened much after the tectonic plate movement and the submergence into the Asian mainland.

A lot has changed by the tiger migration which have taken place all over Asia. The predator became tertiary carnivore and occupied the top of food chain in many ecosystems. In many cases it has become an indicator species as well. The prevalence in a region of this big cat does augur preservation and protection by the virtue of its indomitable presence. Even the Project Tiger for the conservation of this species in India benefits the whole ecosystem and its elements. Hence all seems to go well by this natural time bound invasion. Moreover it has not displaced the Asiatic Lion which was its precursor having arrived from the Ethiopian Region. The two big cats subscribe to two extremely diverse habitats in India.    

Cultural Invasions

Well is this not akin to an invasion similar to that of the Mongols, Moguls and or that by the British? This question deems pertinent as after all we too belonged to the same ecosytem aeons back. But this is not anymore since we have completely alienated ourselves from the natural World and created our own colony on Earth.

The demographic and cultural changes in India brought about by invasions are a major challenge to the country faced with an internecine battle between inherited cultural ethos and the adapted foreign practices and beliefs which will take a long time to naturalise. The division of the country is an example of the effects of disruptive invasions. But this phenomenon will continue to prevail in some form or other, it is our capacity to absorb and integrate that will result in existence in harmony. This virtue will eventually sustain a diverse but unified system which we call our country.    

Humans

More than the invasive animal and plant species, humans have managed to colonise the Earth in disastrous proportions, and multiplied to such extent that our survival is slowly being threatened by limitation of natural resources and our own irresponsible usage. This is nowhere more evident elsewhere than in a heavily populated country like ours. Another threats arises from our lifestyle which aggravates the consumption, and not to forget chemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction. The rapidly evolving strains of deadly microbes is another invasion that is threatening our survival.      

A species invasion is understood as that which invades and then rapidly populates in an ecosystem that is not native to it. But this does not necessarily mean the specie is not compatible with  complex web of life and abiotic factors that prevail in the area under conquest. On the contrary the invasive species often propagates unchecked eventually damaging the habitat, disrupting the ecosystem and over powering native species to the detriment of environment. Many species have become by unnatural species invasion triggered by humans. The Dodo is a living example besides rabbits and dogs in Australia.    

The Tiger

Invasions are disruptive? Well not always, those which are time bound natural spread of species manage to settle down with ease learn to coexist and eventually become part of the ecosystem - ineradicable and indelible. In case of the tiger this has proven to be the case. The slow spread can be attributed to adaptive changes the animal had to undergo in order to survive under changing weather conditions and the new habitats containing unfamiliar elements. 

The tiger conservation in India is not a sentimental or elitist approach as it appears to some. It is downright sensible and practical  approach, keeping in tandem with our Vedic cultural inheritance that makes us realise the value of the environment and those of the elements contained within.       

The Battle      

After a successful habitation of the subcontinent, the survival of the tiger was insured in India. Hunting as sport was prevalent way back but it did not take a toll of the species. But with the development of modern  weapons hunting turned from sport into an elitist addiction and egotist fascination this proved to be destructive on wide scale. Another factor detrimental to the tiger's survival in India was the vermin concept that the British brought along with them. This resulted in mass destruction of not only the big cats but many other carnivores. 

The invasion of agricultural practices became more destructive to the habitats with population explosion in India. Unable to produce food for a rapidly growing populations habitats including the forests all over the country where cleared with fervour and converted into farm land. This also resulted in unchecked settlements into deep recess of remote confines which had been left untouched since aeons. There was no recourse, the country had been checkmated by the population explosion beyond redemption. This is what rabid industrial developments is auguring in the country resulting negative climate change, global warming and pollution of uncontrollable magnitude.               

The rapid conversion of habitats, hunting beyond  proportion and urbanisation of settlement sounds like a death knell for the tiger. During or post 19th century the animal's population began to dwindle unchecked. But it was in much later era that realisation dawned upon us of the species imminent extinction.   

Battle Continues 

The decline in the status of the tiger continued unabated post independence. It was in the sixties that the extreme threat level was acknowledged. The wildlife protection act and the initiation of Project Tiger Conservation Program by the Government of India has augured hope for the hopelessly embattled species on Earth.     

Tiger Deaths A Sad Plight of A Beleaguered Animal

With the electrocution of a tigress (Jr. Kankati) at Bandhavgarh another critically endangered species loses number. The worse to happen is that she was in custody of  her cubs totally dependent. This would mean a loss of four big cats. Negligence, misfortune, accident whatever is stated the sad story is that no answer has been found to prevent deliberate electrocution by local poachers near the reserves.     

Incidences of ghastly electrocution of this dwindling species is not new yet no solution has been found. The menace continues unabated thanks to burgeoning human population that surrounds reserves in India. Man animal conflict is taking its toll not only in case of big cats but other critically endangered animals as well.  This is a discouraging plight of wildlife conservation in the country.

We have taken over lands after destroying niche habitats in order to survive. This is besides the large number of tracts that are not tilled. Suggestive of bad land use policy unfortunately the issue is not a National imperative. And we continue to overpopulate.  

We talk about human rights even in sensitive regions which have constricted beyond regeneration capability.  We do not justify alternate existence/sustenance in order to preserve if the project does not carry sufficient economic leverage. Wilderness is truly battling survival in India.    

Is conservation a wash off of our guilt?

It could well be because we have not yet inculcated values that accord rights to other life forms. We are shamelessly a human centric society. On one hand we zealously discuss climate change, environment change etc but our actions are diametrically opposed our efforts are sham.  

Not only neglect or disregard for other life forms and nature, our actions, development goals and attitude are totally destructive and devoid of any concern for mother Earth that sustains us. When the rot will be stemmed is anybody's guess.                  

The spiralling downwards of big cat population continues - Panna, Pench, Sariska, Kanha to name some. Numerous tigers are missing - presumed to have been poached.  Although tigers travel a long distance to find new territories this is a rare occurrence. Many such predators vanish due to poaching, habitat destruction, mismanagement, lethargy and inconsideration especially in reserves which are not in the limelight. The vanishing species dies unsung.   

Male tigers rarely switch territories unless until forced to since this may also mean loss of young cubs they have sired. The overtaking male kills them instantly if the female is not able to protect them.  Whence common sense prevails the males do not leave the area they are commanding.   

Recently at Kanha National Park a male tiger in the buffer area was electrocuted, purportedly the wire was stretched to kill small game. The unfortunate tiger walked in. Well who knows! Neglect of small crimes leads to more organised, deadly, and concerted efforts.    

The poachers got away with minor punishment exposing the legal lacunae that exists whence crime against wild animals is concerned. There seems to be a complete lack of political will in giving the vital elements of our ecosystems their due.      

States keep on losing big cats purportedly due to poaching. In spite of all the patrolling and protective measures in place the animal is losing ground. It won't be a surprise if the recent exhilaration of rising numbers turns into deep despondency.     

This is not only a conservation challenge, our pride as a Nation is deeply involved. If we fail or falter we will lose face like never before.