By: Meenu Dhillon

“God is the friend of silence. Trees, flowers, grass grow in silence. See the stars, moon, and sun, how they move in silence.”

Diwali or Deepavali (meaning diyas in line) is a festival of  lights. On this day, Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after his exile of 14 years and after his victory over Ravenna . The people of Ayodhya illuminated the whole kingdom by lighting earthen divas in his welcome.

Since then this day has been celebrated in India as a festival of lights. People exchange sweets and gifts,decorate homes with lights and have fireworks which are becoming more and more grand with each year that comes. Now this day is no more celebrated with the same sentiments as it used to be once. Now it has become more of a show of power and wealth.

The world is suffering, the earth is suffering. And when the end comes, the earth was and will be there, it will reconstruct itself, like it has so many times, the world will not end , but the end will be of humanity and life. The very forces which rule the planet, that is the humans, will be put to an end. The global concerns are for the global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, the rapid deforestation and reduction in area under green belt, the pollution and so on.

We, the humans have tortured our mother earth a lot, and still there is no realization of  what has been done . Of over the millions of species existing on earth, the homosapiens, that is, the human being, is the only danger to them all. Because this is the only specie which has made the planet earth what it is today. This is the only specie capable of polluting the environment on such a large scale and destruction of the planet. Why should all these other lives on earth suffer just for the selfish interest and never ending greed of the man. The atmosphere ideal for existence of life on this planet comprises of about 77 % nitrogen, 21% oxygen , 1% carbon dioxide and other gases. But if this balance and composition is disturbed , then the Doom Day is not far.

Some time back, in the year 2007 , a documentary on the problems of earth was produced . It is called, “ the 11th Hour ”. It was carefully made with the contributions of many scientists and environmentalists. It addressed the problems the earth is facing today and their potential solutions. Indeed , the shocking video on the natural disasters and hint that the world is coming to an end filled up the eyes . Government on a global note is taking steps to slow down this process of the beginning of the end , as its almost next to impossible to save our planet , seeing what man has done to it and still not awakening.

But are we all doing enough as is required? Are we really concerned? Do we really care for sustainable development?

Everyday , more and more industries are coming up , adding more pollution to the environment , each day more vehicles are adding to the traffic and air pollution. How many of us care to walk or ride a cycle to the nearby market or work? Each year we burn more and more crackers and pollute the air , rendering it unfit for breathing . Do we really care for our future generations and the environement we are creating for them? If there is really so much concern for smoke and air pollution , the global warming , then why the government is not putting a ban on the sale of crackers and why so many factories go unchecked for pollution control , even if they make the life hell for all the living beings in that region.

Every time the diwali festival is celebrated , the next we all know what to expect in the newspapers. The data about , how many people got burned with crackers , how many got their limbs and eyes damaged , how many were left blinded and deaf. Some even loose their precious lives. Do we ever realize how the old and sick suffer when we fill the whole atmosphere with unbreathable air, smoke and intolerable noise . How much we scare the non human life around us. The ozone layer is depleting fast , more ultra violet rays get trapped on the earth’s surface and raising the temperature , the main culprit : pollution , smoke, carbon dioxide , carbon monoxide , chlorofloro carbons emitted by our vehicles, refridgerators and appliances. The glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, the mountains are sinking, the water level is rising . The pollution we add to the water is killing the aquatic life and disturbing the food chain. The pollution which settles on the land , degrades the cultivable land and less yield is obtained and thus poses a serious scarcity of food.  The nuclear and atomic weapons can put the whole world to an end within minutes. Again, as I mentioned earlier, the world will end for the living beings , earth will reconstruct itself , but life will finish.

Why do the farmers in most parts of India still put the fields on fire after harvesting a crop to get rid of the left behind growth and cultivate a new crop . This adds so much to the air pollution everytime this happens on a large scale . Why is the garbage collected from homes and elsewhere burned and more smoke added to the atmosphere inplace of alternatively decomposing it off by other eco friendly ways? Why all this goes unchecked while on the other hand all the celebrities and politicians and media give good lectures on global warming and degradation of the environment? If we want to do something for humanity and life on this planet then atleast make the following a part of your life :

• Walk few more steps to throw the garbage in the bin
• Atleast plant one tree , for the sake of humanity as we don’t ever realize how much useful these trees are for producing oxygen and controlling temperature
• Say no to fireworks and stop your children from burning crackers too
• Turn off the key to the car when on lights and try to reduce the usage , walking to nearby market is also really good for health
• Switch off the extra lights in the house which are not required
• Don’t burn garbage and reduce smoke

These few changes in lifestyle can make a big difference to the coming generations!!

Mandeep Kaur Dhillon

E-mail: dhillonak@yahoo.com

P.S. The writer is a student of M.A.Economics at Chandigarh .