Forests Fascinate. Period! Would not that indeed be true? Forests cast a spell over every soul. Remember the fairy tales? Forests were such a mystery, dark but alluring. Remember Hansel and Gretel? Remember how all the mysterious forces, both beneficent and dark, emerged from the forests, right?
Forests meet us again and again. In the Mowgli adventures, in the "Lion King" reels as children. As we grow up, forests mesmerise us in very many different ways, in Conrad's mystique "Heart of Darkness", in Thoreau's "Walden", in Wordsworth's wildernesses, in Blake's "The Tyger", as Frost's "lovely, dark, deep woods". Forests, in brief, allure us so much so that in our typical irritation with the urban life, we call it the cement jungle!
In our very own literature and mythology, forests are forever. In the "Ramayana", the forests are a threat, and yet a lovely place for the passionate togetherness of Ram-Seeta. In the "Mahabharata", too, forests stand for every phase of life, childhood to the final farewell for the Pandava Princes. Forests help an Eklavya train, and forests test Draupadi repeatedly. In the "Vedas" too, forests are the source of some of the most beautiful "ruchas".
Currently, however, the forest cover is depleting. The human lust for power, for ownership, for unbridled consumption of all sorts has made human beings in to beasts, and forests in to wastelands. The environmental effects affect the entire mankind , and all the forms of non-human entities, the flora and the fauna that once filled forests full.
We need to save forests of all sorts, the Amazonian to the Himalayan. Forests are not merely for vacation safari's. Forests are forever. If forests live, we live. Leave forests alone!
Pratima@Forests foster the ecosystem in all its majesty and utility. Forests teach us many subtle lessons we must never de-learn for our own survival!
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