Poet Bharathi's Ember! - Pearls of Wisdom!

Met this extraordinary person last week during a tree-growers meet in my city.

He loves his country and the farmers. This love has been the biggest motivating factor for him to come up with many Firsts in India in Tree Genetics and Forestry. He is like a highly decorated Military General when it comes to his career (Chief Conservator of Forests of Tamil Nadu, State Planning Commission member, first person to introduce VEM, that stands for Very Effective Microbe, in India... to name just a few).

He is spending his retired life advising governments and industries with the underpinning focus on 'getting MORE dough for the farmers community of India'. He has also formed a Trust to encourage tree-planting. His target Audience are the kids of India...

What struck me most was his down to earth manners and respect to nature. 

I am easily bored by any meetings / discussions that exceed 1 hour max but this time I did not even know that this guy was speaking to us for close to 5 hours - extempore that is and that too straight from the heart type!!!!! The only thought running thru at the back of my mind all through his speech was 'hey THIS is the agni kunchu (ember that burns down forests young and old) that Poet Bharathi extolled in his famous poem'...

Here are some of the 'pearls':

"

Humankind is actually THE wild life in this planet! And we dare call the rest of life forms as wildlife just because we think we are supreme.

If any of the non human species go extinct then humankind will perish within a short period. But if humankind becomes extinct then every other form of life will thrive happily in earth!

800+ endemic species are (species that live only in a particular area and nowhere outside of it in the world) living in the Western Ghats. Be proud!

Tamil Nadu could become a power surplus State within a few years just by using Bio-power. How? Grow a fast growing variety of Melia Dubia in the 380+ taluks of the State and use the wood to produce power (this variety known as GK10 grows  to usable size within 2 years - it is not a joke!). This activity of growing trees and power production will provide livelihood to the people of those taluks - they don't have to waste their lives guarding ATMs in big cities for pittance of a salary...

The effluents that have overtaken rivers like Noyyal - the devastating ecological effects caused by it could be nullified simply by changing the salt used in the dyeing industry from Sodium Chloride to Potassium Chloride; the negative effect on soil can be reversed to positive effect by doing this (Potassium is the part of the triumvirate NPK fertilizer used by many farmers.  

These two as well as many other ideas he proposed got shot down just because it came from him! He is an outspoken and eccentric personality to say the least!!!!!)

Do you know the true meaning of the proverb "Don't live in any place that does not have a temple"? Temples have flower plants and trees to meet out the needs of the temples and these naturally attract bees, bats, butterflies etc... which help in pollination as well as pest control of not only the plants in the temple premises but in the surrounding area also - this means that the eco-balance of the  place is taken care and that farmers harvest more without using chemicals for controlling pest and the likes. People living in that kind of a surrounding also enjoy the benefits of such healthy farming! So if you want to live a good life choose a place that has at-least few temples in the vicinity.

(Unfortunately many temples have lost out their share of lands to realtors and farming itself suffers in our country due to rapid urbanisation.

For all the courses in Environmental Science / Engineering / City Planning touted as the 'much needed, New New' course for the ever growing populace, here I came to realise that the simplest and most effective of all such plans is actually IN USE @ OUR BACKYARD FOR 1000s OF YEARS without ever being noisy about it!).  

"

He signed off his speech with this knock-out punch!

" 

I am canvassing with children actively for planting Jamaican Cherry trees that give fruits year around  - this would help those species that lost their 'homes' to human misventures in our forests to regain their food base and also do what they do best - help bio diversification as well as eco-balance. I talk to kids because I know from my experience that they and ONLY they listen to issues like this.

Occasionally people ask me whether they could consume the fruits of this tree and I usually reply 'oh no! if you do that you would lose hearing sense in your right ear and may even be afflicted by paralysis of your left leg!!'.  

...

I spread this rumour just to make sure that at-least these fruits are left for those birds and insects that live on them!!!! 

" 

Eccentric he is but what a man!

Folks, Dr. G. Kumaravelu, for you!