We alone are responsible for our self-destruction.Look at us when something called Natural Disaster approaches us, we are completely helpless and caught off-guard. We are never prepared for facing anything coming to us, and this is because we are so busy managing other things that we forget our prime consent and begin wandering like a dog.
Consider the case of Mumbai. The city is ever-bulging since it became the financial capital of India. The population holding capacity of the city has been crossed way back in 1990’s. CIty’s area is very less as compared to it population. Yet again new bunch of people are coming from outside and coming straight to Mumbai as if Mumbai is the lone reruiter of each and everybody. People come inMumbai, they build their own house somewhere (a hut or 2 room cottage) or buy an apartment and stay here forever. But it’s not the end,one family of 5 people coming in Mumbai is not satisfied by the outcome, they ask their relatives also to come and join them in the race of earning money and that too in Mumbai.Let me make one thing clear here. I am not against of anybody coming in Mumbai and making a living here. But the thing is Mumbai isalso having its limits of area and population bearing capacity. It can not accommodate ever bulging population. Can it? The city’sprevious and original boundaries have long been erased and new boundaries are being build every now and then. AAMDAR NIWAS (thatsa guest house for the MLA’s stands dangerously on the sea. The land on which the MLA Guest House has been constructed is a very dangerousplace. The sea has been pushed back to some extent to build MLA Guest house there, so there are very much chances that sea will sometimeor other will burst of and will come with great intensity again to find us helpless.
We have seen what a massacre that can be when nature shows that he is greater to any brain and force by humans.26th July 2005 has seen Mumbai crumbling to the heavy (well, heavy will be an understatement) rain. The drainage were not cleaned upand people were unaware. The day saw many of the people in Mumbai drowning with the force of water and furnitures and vehicles were accompanying them. People were so helpless that for weeks the life could not come back on track. Ground floor residents took shelterin the upper floor resident’s house for more than a week. What does this show? That we should take things seriously and make arrangements for proper drainage and disposal system. But even after 4 years of the incident, Mumbai drainage has not been looked after. When asked to clear the doubt the officials say that we are certainly looking after them and by a month or so we will clear them up, but still the situation is pretty the same. Take the case of Tsunami that struck which caught people in Chennai, Mumbai and some other coastal regions off-guard. We can’t really say that we were caught off-guard because we were having fair idea of the tsunami coming to India.
But even then people were not able to vacate the premises. Not only in Mumbai, but in Chennai too there was a heavy traffic jam and the crowd was not able to vacate the city properly and effectively making them vulnerable to the incoming tsunami waves. And the same happened. People were caught running and were killed by the mighty waves.
Even after such a situation, we haven’t learnt a lesson. The recent threat of Phyan cyclone hitting Konkan, Mumbai coast and Gujrat coast was nothing less than a terror in people’s mind. Government also haven’t learnt a lesson about administration. I doubt the capacities of thepeople who are administrators of cities like Mumbai and Chennai or some other city too. When Phyan cyclone was expected to hit Mumbairegion between 3:30-4:30 PM how thoughtfull is it to start vacating the city from 1:00 and 2:00 PM? The government offices and schools were asked to close down by 2:00 PM and 1:00 PM respectively. If everybody is set to be released at the same time, will there not be a heavy traffic jam on the roads? And the same happened in various parts of Mumbai. At around 3-4 PM people were still struggeling to break the traffic jam and get back to home. Consider the situation, what if Phyan cyclone would have actually hit Mumbai? These people were obviousvictims. How forged, bad and regretful the situation could have been? Can’t the so called administrators see such things?
This is high time we should think of managing a city properly. We have time and again seen how cruel nature can be if we start to play with it unthoughtfuly and foolishly. We have made various silly mistakes and now they are starting to pay off by forcing the nature to turn ugly.I am not against of anybody coming here in Mumbai and making a living, it’s their right and I am no one to deny that right. But people also should understand that every city has its limits and Mumbai have certainly long back have crossed the limits. Mumbai is so much out of bounds now to manage it properly. The boundaries have been pushed back, the population is shooting like anything and people are coming in bulk everyday. Shouldn’t we stop somewhere and introspect what we have done till now? How bad effects have crawled in because ofour greed and un-thoughtfullness? There are certainly other cities to migrate to, and Mumbai is not on the list anymore and it should not be. I ask why to migrate for some pity work? I suppose we can develop our own states and cities and can live happily there without jeopardising the nation.
If people keep on coming to Maharashtra or rather specifically Mumbai, where the original Maharashtrians will go? This is high time thatwe should think over this issue, otherwise we will be left we not time to act on it. It’s already late to reverse the harm we have caused to nature.Here onwards we can atleast try and not harm the mother earth. If we take care of the nature, nature will take care of Us. Otherwise, the ugly face of nature is too harsh to stand against.
USA also faced similar threats from Nature like Katrina and wild fire in the jungles that they couldn’t control before the fire burnt everything. We are destructing the very source of Earth’s stability and peace. If we don’t make a move right now, we will be done within some years only. Melting glaciers and rising sea levels, increasing heat and big changes in the climates, seasons being toppled and all natural resources coming to an end are all shouting loudly to tell us that WE are on a wrong path. But the shout is falling on the deaf ears so the nature has to take some serious steps. But even after those steps we are not learning things.
Nature has its own way of maintaining the balance of everything that’s present in nature, let that be population or other natural things. Nature’s way is no doubt the ugly way of clearing the surface but can’t help it. Nature takes a lottery and whoever comes on the list is cleared without any second thoughts. If human want to play dirty games with nature, as he has always been doing, trying to be over smart and trying to be the controller or the world, keep this in mind that in the game of Human v/s nature, nature will always and for sure will win. No second thoughts.
Nature has played the shot and now the ball’s in your (or rather our court) and its our time to play the shot. So decide what shot you want to play.
The World Through My Eyes... 