Monkey Business

These days we often hear about tigers, elephants and monkeys chasing people. Many have been killed by Sundarban tigers, who had dared to visit human habitats, rampaging and harming anyone they found on the way. The same has been true in Purulia, Midnapore and Bankura districts of West Bengal, where hordes of elephants would walk through paddy fields, villages, knocking down whatever they found. They sometimes were in hundreds, too impossible for the meager foresters, commissioned to chase them away. We are surprised that these animals, supposed to be kept at safe distance have at last come to threaten us, and many are really frightened of them.

In many villages and towns, monkeys have become a nuisance, chasing people, grabbing any eatable they may have, throwing stones at them, and at times indulging even in 'indecent' behavior. We do not need Charles Darwin to say that monkeys are our distant cousins; the affinity is rather close and we cannot take them casually. I remember some twenty years ago, as I was preparing to join the college studies, one of the famous Mathematicians Fr Franz Goreaux once told me that he had a monkey in his room, and I was quite curious to see it. He took me to his room, to the looking mirror and asked me to look at the mirror for the monkey. And lo and behold, I found one, very similar to me!

Jokes apart, but what makes these animals enter into our reserved zone, the restricted area? Common sense tells us that we have plundered their food, and the starving animals are out to seek food to fill their stomachs. Fortunately these animals are not as vengeful and greedy like the human race; they would fight tooth and nail to fill their stomachs, but once their stomachs are full, they would not touch even if the best of food appears before them. How I wish we human beings had learned this great lesson, of moderation in our needs. Even when these animals prawl in our courtyards, they do not think of the meal the next day. They are happy about what they had got for the day!

In fact, what is happening today, the animals chasing us from our habitats, is nothing new in history. All these years, we had tried to chase these animals from their habitat, in order to rob the little resources they had; we had emptied all their stock, and they are today left to survive on what we have robbed from their habitat. They do today exactly what we had been doing for decades and centuries, and we cannot stand before them and claim innocent. But one thing is for sure, the destruction they have done and continue to do in our villages is far marginal in comparison to what we have done to them.

Human race knows only to be on the defensive; I wish the people living close to forests and rivers gather together something for these animals, and place them in places where they are likely to look for food; it would be better to provide them what they look for, so that they do not go hunting for them. It is natural that when they do not get what they want dearly, they may not hesitate even to kill people. If only we take steps to provide them what they want, then they would be more than happy to remain indoors in the forests. But that means we have to sacrifice part of our booty and share it with them. The monkeys are beckoning us to share what we had looted from them; but if we refuse to, then they would force us to share with them, and the consequences may be splattered with blood.

In Support of Serpents

Snakes! the proverbial enemies of humanity from the time of the first parents, Adam and Eve, there is hardly any who would say something in support of these animals. They are a cursed lot, already from the time of the genesis, and they are still so, except for a few minor religious sects who have taken shelter with snakes as their deity, as is the case with Manasa Devi in Bengal, and Naga Devadai in the southern India. But that does not stop the snakes from harming even the very people who worship them as deities! It has gone deep into human mind that snakes cannot be allowed to live!

We are taught already from our childhood that snakes are evil, and they are all poisonous. They cannot be allowed to prawl around in our gardens and fields, but they should be killed on the spot! We may even allow our enemies to escape our beating, but cannot allow snakes from escaping, leave alone letting them run away peacefully! Much of our understanding about snakes is faulty and erroneous; and quite a bit of it is based on prejudice. We cannot think that the snakes also have the same right to live on earth as any of us is! We often claim that the earth belonged to us, and not to these, and so they can be dispensed with without any hesitation.

It is basically ignorance which make us conclude that all snakes are poisonous; even the harmless grass-snake are killed at the very first sight, and we have great pride in proclaiming to the whole world that we had killed a very poisonous snake! One of the environmentalists had recently announced that out of all the snakes commonly found in India, only two varies are really poisonous and so are fatal, and most others are not poisonous. They may bite others, but people cannot die due to poison. There may not be too many people who would bite this idea, even if it is based on facts and scientific data.

I have heard several stories in our village, where people had died due to snake bite, and have also heard about those men and women who recovered after snake bite! But generally the stories of the people who have succumbed to poisonous snakes had been doing extra rounds than those who had recovered from such a bite. Now the point I would like to propose is that it is time that we think twice before we look for sticks and rods to kill snakes. It is said that snakes would not deliberately harm anyone; until they are provoked, they would mind their own business! After all, they are not after human blood!

If the human race claims a rightful place on earth, then the snakes too have a rightful place here, and the fact is that these creatures are more friendly to the earth and the universe than humanity! It is time that we stop condemning all snakes as poisonous and kill them instantly. The number of snakes in our villages and gardens and fields have reduced considerably. If this situation were to continue, then after some years, we may not have any real snake to show to our children; the snakes might have then become like what dinausours are for us today. Let us give the snakes their rightful place on earth, and they too would honor us for that act of charity and kindness!