Eco-Friendly Insects

In the words of Sadhguru “If all of the worms on this planet, right now if all of them die, all of them, in about 12 to 18 months all life on this planet will cease, including you and me. Suppose all the insects die today, in something like 2.5 to 4 years all life will cease”. We need to know that our existence directly depends on them. Like bees pollinating apples, cherry, peach, or almonds and who would make honey. Big picture is that every little creature plays a vital role in maintaining this necessary food chain.

Who do we hate the most, Mosquitoes and Cockroaches usually? But do we know that 3300 species of the mosquitos are the food for birds, bats, frogs, and a lot of other animals. A world without mosquitoes would be a big trouble for many living creatures. Similarly, 4400 species of roaches carry enough potential to devastate the whole ecosystem. These roaches are a good healthy meal for birds and rodents and humans too in some parts of the world.

Back in 1788 when cattle were introduced in Australia, they encountered a huge poop problem because there were no dung beetles unlike in Britain who would eat and break down the dung. One-year cow dung fills up an entire tennis field and this proved to be right because eventually by 1960, the cattle had carpeted 500,000 acres of pasture in dung. We can say that cow dung is a good fertilizer/manure but excess of it would flood the plants with nitrogen where nothing grows.

All of this tells us that every creature (except humans) irrespective of its shape and size are doing the right thing and playing their role in the best possible manner to keep this ecosystem healthy and happy. On the contrary, if all the human beings die the planet will flourish. Our petty “establishments” (houses, mansions, expensive furniture, show pieces, luxury cars) will all be home for trees, bushes, little insects, animals and what not.

What Sadhguru said was in a slightly different context, however I feel we humans can also extract more from his knowledge and guidance, that we are the most developed and wise species on the earth and yet a debt or a burden to this nature because we are directly-indirectly fulfilling our needs by compromising something way too bigger than our money, our selfish wants and our meaningless desires. Haven’t we cut mountains and enormous vegetation to build huge hotels, café(s) and all sorts of commercial infrastructure? Haven’t we made little structures near riverbanks and lakes and called it river/lake view property to get more money? Haven’t we made a lot of shacks on sea beaches and then we complain how dirty the beaches are? Haven’t we polluted rivers with all sorts of waste? Sadly, this toxic list goes on and on.

Despite the fact that our existence is temporary, yet it is ruthlessly demanding, instead it should have been filled with deeds of giving back in some or the other form back to the nature around us. It should not just be restricted only to growing plants and trees. There should be more contribution of some sort to it and very regularly and collectively as society to let this nature revive and regain its vitality. All this would not be some great deed favouring nature worthy of a pat on the back, but this will be a favour upon ourselves only. At least we will breathe fresh air.

We should not forget how after a few weeks of first lockdown we started noticing how the visibility around us got better, the breath was very fresh giving us a feel of mountains, our body language was calm and many of us began to find the lost creative edge beneath a lot of dust accumulated on our free soul due to this multi-tasking life of ours. Clearly, this is something which nature favoured us and yet we are so ungrateful. Why can’t we have that life back besides all the hustle bustle? Will it not add more value to human health? Will it not help our upcoming generations even though it made us feel better in many ways already? Is there a way to make sure everyone earns their bread and at least breath fresh air? I have been looking for answers to these questions since the time I was able to breath fresh and unpolluted air in 2020 and that too in a metro city while thinking about all of this. But did I lose my sleep while finding these answers? The answer is a Big Fat NO and that’s the problem.

By Truthful Scribe

Edited by PK Waghare