The Circle of Oneness

Prelude

There is a story about Guru Nanak when he was still a young boy. He was sent to the family’s farm by his father with an express instruction to guard the ripening wheat fields especially against the birds that fed voraciously on the grains. The young boy not only failed to adhere to the task but went a step ahead in disregarding his father’s instruction by inviting the birds in his singsong voice to come and feed on the standing crop - "राम जी की चिड़िया, राम जी का खेत, चुग लो चिड़ियों, भर-भर पेट" I (Birds are God’s creation and He has blessed us with the grain harvest too. Birds, do come and have your fill.) Such a compassion and gratitude can only come from an evolved soul who sees God everywhere and in everyone. A cynic may say that such people do not exist today. Wait. Let me tell another contemporary incident that highlights Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam not merely in thought but in practice..

Fragmented elephant populations exist in India- there are pockets in South, Northwest, Centre and Northeast. Due to the increase in human population, forest clearance of natural habitats for infrastructure development and other factors the instances of man- animal conflict, now euphemistically also called human-wildlife interaction, has been worsening over the years. The current data reveals that more than five hundred people die annually in India because of elephant trampling.

Various state governments and central government have come out with many schemes for the conservation of elephants and their habitats and also to protect or compensate people against crop depredation or death. Local people also adopt their own solutions to fight against this menace in ways that may vary from benign to barbaric. In certain locations people rear bees as it has been experienced that they can help in driving away crop raiding elephants by stinging them in droves though it may appear strange as to how a mammoth can be bothered by a lowly sting.

Kattunaickar and Kuruma tribes in Wayanad in Kerala use catapults that can scare away the raiding elephants. They have perfected the art of baking clay and rolling it to the size of a marble that is then used as a projectile for striking elephants from a safe distance. Elephants are really scared when they are hit by these hard pellets hurled at high speed and they get quickly driven away with the tribals in hot pursuit on foot, providing a comic sight, till they are safely back in the forests; at least for the time being. This traditional expertise proved its worth when Wayanad tribals were called to shoo the elephants away from human habitations in Palghat town. Till they were driven away the wild pachyderms had a gala time in agriculture fields just like truant students on a running spree away from school. The local TV news channels showed their fun and frolic in the fields repeatedly for five days when they managed to thwart all attempts of the forest department to send them back to their habitat.

Kerala has about 6000 wild elephants and it is one state in the country with a very high human population density too. In many places agriculture farms and forest patches are lying cheek by jowl. It is a known fact that wild elephants are generally bitten by a travel bug and they are genetically primed to travel long distances even when food and water are abundantly available in a given locality. Their foot loose trait can be gauged from the fact that scientists have found that an elephant, on an average, can walk about 15 kilometers daily covering an area of more than 300 square kilometers annually. In case of a herd, all the members follow the matriarch who is the repository of all traditional routes that were followed by them in the past. Many of those routes are now disrupted due to infrastructure development and encroachment.

As a result, there are many instances when elephants cross present forest boundaries and feed on agricultural crops. From anthropocentric point of view this causes economic loss coupled with human misery; especially when in addition to crop loss, people get trampled while defending their farms or, at times, by sheer accident. Kerala government has a scheme to compensate farmers for crop loss and ex gratia relief is also provided in case of human death. Rupees twenty crores were provisioned in the annual budget for providing relief due to man-animal conflict by the time I left Kerala Forest Department in 2019. There used to be thirty human casualties annually; mostly by elephant trampling.

          On all national and international fora environment and wildlife experts keep talking about co-existence. This view is perfectly logical and ethical and can not be faulted in any way. Yet, in reality the experts themselves do not bear the cost of co-existence or suffer the actual consequences of man-animal conflict therefore it is rather easy for them to mouth such platitudes. It is the poor who have to face the brunt and they generally react by coercing the forest department to capture and translocate the ‘rogue’ elephants. Things may get worse when the locals take the matter in their own hands disregarding the law. One such incident happened in Kerala last year when a disgruntled farmer fed a pregnant elephant fed with a pine apple stuffed with an explosive. When the bomb exploded it caused a grievous injury and the elephant died a painful death that did not come instantly.

          Yet, there is another perspective of compassion and empathy for the voiceless that was revealed to me by Dr. Induchoodan. I had brought a group of forty students from IIFM, Bhopal in 2011 for their field trip to Kerala and we were camping in Munnar. One evening I had requested Dr. Induchoodan, the local DFO, to interact with the students to familiarize them with the field problems faced in conservation.

          Soon the topic of discussion turned to man-animal conflict in Kerala. DFO explained about the existing government scheme of compensating the loss due to crop depredation. He observed that to his surprise there were no claims being filed by Muthuvan tribe residing in Idamalayarkudi colony for compensation though there were numerous cases of crop raiding by elephants in that area. When he inquired from the moopan (tribal elder in the hamlet) about their indifference to seeking compensation despite the provision in the government scheme, he got a very profound reply: “Sir, everything we grow in our fields does not belong to us. The elephants take their share and we are happy with the share that we receive.” I simply marvelled at this lesson of forbearance, coexistence, gratitude and empathy.

The implicit wisdom in Muthuvan’s view is that whatever is coaxed out of earth’s womb is a result of so many natural elements aligning together- rain, sun, wind, birds, hordes of smaller creatures like earthworms, bees, insects, millions of micro-organisms, spirits and even blessings. Though human labour and ingenuity are invested in agriculture but they are only parts of the nature’s tapestry and therefore not entitled to usurp all that springs forth as a natural bounty.

The mind-set and the vocabulary of a traditional tribal are entirely different from that of a city dweller. For the former everything is bequeathed and to be relished in the proportion that comes your way with no regret even if it is lost in the next moment; everything is in a flux anyway. Contrastingly, we have generally lost that awareness of oneness by putting on blinkers that exclude or completely ignore others.  Modern civilized man has slowly changed the old, wise and empathetic narrative: from ‘getting our due share’ to ‘crop depredation and economic loss.’

This conversation reminded me of a practice in Vipashyana (Vipassana) meditation camps where the following lines are chanted at the end of each day before going to sleep:

 तेरा मंगल, तेरा मंगल, तेरा मंगल होय रे

सबका मंगल,सबका मंगल, सबका मंगल होय रे
इस जगत के सब दुखियारे प्राणी का मंगल होय रे
जल में, थल में और गगन में सबका मंगल होय रे

(I pray for the blessings and well-being of all – mine, yours, all living creatures who reside on land, water and air.)