Gifts from Nature

Anna and I came across these flowers in the wild at Connor on the side walks and hedges. If you were to travel by the heritage train from Mettupalayam to Ooty, you would see similar sights all along.

The nature preserves its panaroma during every season. There is no gardener to plant, prune, and tend them. The live, grow and and fade away only to appear again at the next season. They live from the bounty of light, rain and the fertile soil the nature provides.

Often they are subject to the fury of nature such as storm, drought or fire. They survive even that. I am not sure, whether passers by look and admire these flowers! Sometimes pests destroy them and there is none to protect them. This is the natural history of these wild plants and flowers.

What strikes me as I think about it is the quiet existence of these plants and flowers to provide honey to the bees, and butter flies and complete the plant cycle  through fertilization.

Let me tell you how a seven year old  a child described this, who was on this walk with his parents ahead of us. 'Everything is beautiful. God must be caring for them'.

The nature seeks attention from us as it is under threat.

There is an order and pattern which is preserved in spite of several environmental changes taking place.  The ecological system survives the odds humans create during the process of environmental modifications and infrastructural development. There is so much use of land for construction that the open spaces are getting reduced, which would affect the natural habitat of the flora and fauna.

I wish we will be more thoughtful about our environment. We need to reduce the use of plastics, pesticides, and indiscriminate disposal of toxic waste, which harms the plants and contaminates the water table. 

Often, these good practices begin with an example shown by some one who cares. Professor Jacob John at Vellore started  rain water harvesting about 20 years back much before it was made mandatory for every new building. The neighbours followed to do the same.  

There is so much richness all around us in nature that we need to foster the habit of appreciating it. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)