Sukumaran C. V.
“The shola forest and the meadows which have been gutted and destroyed by hunters at the hilltop of Nelliyampathy are the pang of my mind. Without having enough staff and funds, the forest department is quite hapless and helpless.The only one ‘weapon’ against wildfire in the hands of the forest department which fights the fire and the scorching summer is a banner which reads ‘Prevent Wildfire’. Without having enough staff strength and sophisticated methods, the department is playing a ‘fire play’ with the fire. We have to conduct awareness programmes among the people who live in and around the forest. It seems that everything is ending in this reply—there is no fund. If there is no fund to protect the priceless and precious flora and fauna, what else we should protect and conserve? The underground water sources (uravukal) of the earth are drying up in the parching summer. Earth is turning more and more parching and scorching. The answer to this ‘phenomenon’ is not trees but forests. We can plant trees, but we can’t plant or make forests. A small forest should grow in the minds of every individual. Only when it grows and spreads out from their minds; the land is covered with greenery. I have heard somebody saying that it rained as the result of their prayer. Never, friend; It won’t rain as a result of the prayer of the humans. It rains because of the prayer of other animals. The rain comes for them. What are the humans doing to the Earth?” (My own translation from Malayalam). This insightful writing comes from a person who sees forest and wildlife not through the typical anthropocentric view-point of the so called ‘educated’ society, and hence people like him are the really educated ones and this person is none other than the unique wildlife photographer N. A. Naseer. The passage is taken from his wonderful book written in Malayalam titled Kaadine Chennu Thodumpol.
“The shola forest and the meadows which have been gutted and destroyed by hunters at the hilltop of Nelliyampathy are the pang of my mind. Without having enough staff and funds, the forest department is quite hapless and helpless.The only one ‘weapon’ against wildfire in the hands of the forest department which fights the fire and the scorching summer is a banner which reads ‘Prevent Wildfire’. Without having enough staff strength and sophisticated methods, the department is playing a ‘fire play’ with the fire. We have to conduct awareness programmes among the people who live in and around the forest. It seems that everything is ending in this reply—there is no fund. If there is no fund to protect the priceless and precious flora and fauna, what else we should protect and conserve? The underground water sources (uravukal) of the earth are drying up in the parching summer. Earth is turning more and more parching and scorching. The answer to this ‘phenomenon’ is not trees but forests. We can plant trees, but we can’t plant or make forests. A small forest should grow in the minds of every individual. Only when it grows and spreads out from their minds; the land is covered with greenery. I have heard somebody saying that it rained as the result of their prayer. Never, friend; It won’t rain as a result of the prayer of the humans. It rains because of the prayer of other animals. The rain comes for them. What are the humans doing to the Earth?” (My own translation from Malayalam). This insightful writing comes from a person who sees forest and wildlife not through the typical anthropocentric view-point of the so called ‘educated’ society, and hence people like him are the really educated ones and this person is none other than the unique wildlife photographer N. A. Naseer. The passage is taken from his wonderful book written in Malayalam titled Kaadine Chennu Thodumpol.
N. A. Naseer is a wildlife photographer par excellence. What makes his photographs different from the usual wildlife photography is that he does not visit the forest only for photographing the wildlife. He is a part of the forest. His photographs show the serene bond between him and the animals. He has wandered through the forests for years together without camera in hand and has become a part of the forest as the animals, birds, reptiles, butterflies and insects are. Only after being a part of it, he started to photograph the forest and its children.
And his book shatters all our anthropocentric attitude and knowledge about forests and the wildlife. Usually the books on forest and wildlife are written from the perspective of the humans. But Naseer writes from the perspective of the forest and wildlife. He writes: “We should see forest as we look at a rainbow. We should touch the forest as if we touch a flower. We should glide through the forest as if we are in a dream. We should merge in and melt into the green of the forest. Then forest will take us with its thousand hands as if we are its children.”
Naseer, who can rightly be called the Rachel Carson of Kerala, says in the book: “Everything should change and change is needed for everything. But the only thing that should not be changed is forest. I don’t know how we can call those who kill trees and mountains and marshes humans….”
We can see poetry in Naseer’s photography and Naseer’s prose is also poetic. He poignantly and poetically shows us that the Western Ghats and the forests are the precious sources of bio-diversity and they are the forces of nature which sustain us.
“The fact that the greatness of a small ant or a small worm is greater than that of the humans will be known to us only when we sit beside them. Daily, we prove that the only creature that sows destruction on Earth is the humans. While each small creature works hard to sustain Planet Earth, all the activities of the humans contribute to the destruction of the planet. We are travelling on the road of self destruction without recognizing the report of the WGEEP.”
In his long years of forest life, he has encountered almost all animals and reptiles, in the wild, face to face. But no animal (the carnivore or herbivore) or reptile has ever attacked him. He says that the wild animals can perfectly differentiate the humans who are their friends, who see them with reverence from those who come to kill them, who see them as something dangerous.
“If the wild animals come just in front of us and if we reach very close to them, it is because of an intimate language, the language of heart, which is recognized by both the photographer and the photographed animals. We commit grave mistake when we consider it as adventure.”
(The following are his photographs which show us this language of intimacy between him and the wild animals. When I informed him my intention to write an article in English on his wonderful book, he himself sent me the photographs to attach with the article. I have seen many ‘educated’ writers and activists, but I have never seen a man who is as humble as N. A. Naseer and hence I consider him as the really educated one. He is not ‘educated’ in the man-made universities to destroy Nature; he is educated in the school of Nature and by Nature. Hence he tries to protect and conserve Nature and Mother Earth as possible as he can.)
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This language of intimacy is the thing which makes Naseer the only wildlife photographer of his kind.
And the following insight makes his book the most important one of our times: “The roots of our indigenous trees have the power to sustain the coolness of the earth and collect water in them. It seems that those who pull out the roots don’t know that our small state which lies in a slanting position from the south to the west is sustained and protected by the power of the roots of the still remaining green patches….When the vapour that rises in the west from the Arabian Sea travels south on the wings of the winds, Western Ghats and its greenery are needed to block and cool it. Only then we will have drinking water through rains, only then there will be rivers, only then the atmospheric temperature will come down…But we are not interested in protecting the forest or the soil or the rivers. We are organizing seminars and meetings to wipe out the still remaining green patches in the name of development, and for the ‘farmers’ and the estate owners”
Naseer shows us the pristine, pure, serene, beautiful and
wonderful world of not only the big animals, but of the insects, butterflies, flowers, birds and even of the leaves and roots too. When he describes the different musics of the forest, the music you hear when it rains in the forest and the music you hear when it doesn't rain, we really experience the ecstasy.
Let me conclude by translating a story with which he concludes the chapter on birds and their music titled Kaadu Paadunnu (Forest Sings): “Once, a Zen teacher (Zen Guru) entered into his class room and when the students were respectfully waiting to hear his words, a small bird started to sing sitting near the window. The class room fell into silence. After a while, the bird stopped singing and flew away. Then the Guru said: ‘Today's class is over’”.
Let me conclude by translating a story with which he concludes the chapter on birds and their music titled Kaadu Paadunnu (Forest Sings): “Once, a Zen teacher (Zen Guru) entered into his class room and when the students were respectfully waiting to hear his words, a small bird started to sing sitting near the window. The class room fell into silence. After a while, the bird stopped singing and flew away. Then the Guru said: ‘Today's class is over’”.
