I commute along the G.T. Road (NH-2). For a small stretch between Raniganj and Andal, trees along the road were home to a humongously large number of butterflies. If the weather was good, I could make out a hundred odd butterflies. Sometimes, over two hundred.
Life blooms in unexpected places. This is an industrial area in the Raniganj- Dhanbad coal belt; air pollution is high, with factories belching out particulate matter in copious quantities. One does not anticipate this environment to support butterflies. My hypothesis was that the pollution affected more adversely the birds and other animals that would otherwise prey on butterflies. As I write, I wonder if some particular pollutant had a stimulating effect.
While most butterflies remained at a height, a couple would come lower, darting across the windscreen. Once, one hit my windscreen, slided down, and got stuck in the wiper. I carefully disengaged it, and placed it on a small plant a few feet away from the road. It immediately flew away! I did not they were so resilient.
Rather curiously, no one paid any attention to the butterflies. At least, I never heard anyone talk of them. But then, you can't see butterflies if you are cramped inside an over- crowded bus. Nor if you are reading pink papers in the rear seat of your car. So, the butterflies became my own little secret.
My interest in butterflies increased. I read up a bit on what the butterflies liked. The tips were simple, and they worked. This winter, my garden had a much larger number of butterflies. It was immensely satisfying.
Then, somebody decided that four lanes are not enough for such a vital road. It is true, four lanes are not enough. It is the Golden Quadrilateral, after all. So, the road is being widened. And the trees that stood between the industrial area and the road are all gone.
I wish I knew someone, anyone, who had seen the butterflies there. I could share notes and lament the loss. But in so far I know, they were only my secret.
The construction company seems to be doing a neat job-- chop off the branches, then the top of the trunk, then the rest of it. Dig a trench the width of a lane, throw the soil away. Then fill the trench with some other type of sand, and a sturdy road make.
It is all heavily mechanized, large machines swiftly working. Every week or so, a small track is blocked for their work. And one by one, they return that track with a wider road. Really wider road. Wow! The road is getting pretty wide.
Correction, the road is getting wide. It is not the job of a road to be pretty.
As a commuter on that road, the widening suits me. It is not just about for smoother driving and less honking. As I drive down the widened road, there is empty road to my left, empty road to my right, empty road ahead and empty road behind. It is as if I am the king and they have cordoned away rest of the traffic.
And then suddenly I am on the stretch they are yet to widen, and it is so irritating. If you thought adding two lanes to a 4-lane road would improve traffic by only 50%, you need to read about Queuing Theory.
I guess it is a good thing that the road is being widened. One should not get all weepy-weepy over butterflies. We have too many obscurantists doing such weird things, don't we? People who keep criticizing progress in the name of conserving environment and protecting endangered species. I wonder how they earn a living. Foreign funding, probably.
Yet there is hope for progress. A species is endangered only as long it is not extinct. With time, we will prune the existing list. And add the butterflies.
India has had enough people who alternate between crawling and flying off the handle. They drink in the nectar of prosperity while their kin try to chew away its powerhouses. We cannot remain cocooned in backwardness, it's kinda embarrassing in international fora. India needs to take its rightful place in the comity of nations. And the trees are in the way.
Beware! For your heart still beats for the beauty of nature, and finds respect for those who struggle to preserve it. Clean up your mind, get your facts right. There are no free lunches, development comes at a price.
Butterflies aren't even the price of development. In India, elephants enjoy that privilege.
I like elephants, I really do. I understand this is not a competition. I also understand elephants would not interpret it as enjoying a privilege. Yet for no particular reason, I wish butterflies were the price of development.
Life blooms in unexpected places. This is an industrial area in the Raniganj- Dhanbad coal belt; air pollution is high, with factories belching out particulate matter in copious quantities. One does not anticipate this environment to support butterflies. My hypothesis was that the pollution affected more adversely the birds and other animals that would otherwise prey on butterflies. As I write, I wonder if some particular pollutant had a stimulating effect.
While most butterflies remained at a height, a couple would come lower, darting across the windscreen. Once, one hit my windscreen, slided down, and got stuck in the wiper. I carefully disengaged it, and placed it on a small plant a few feet away from the road. It immediately flew away! I did not they were so resilient.
Rather curiously, no one paid any attention to the butterflies. At least, I never heard anyone talk of them. But then, you can't see butterflies if you are cramped inside an over- crowded bus. Nor if you are reading pink papers in the rear seat of your car. So, the butterflies became my own little secret.
My interest in butterflies increased. I read up a bit on what the butterflies liked. The tips were simple, and they worked. This winter, my garden had a much larger number of butterflies. It was immensely satisfying.
Then, somebody decided that four lanes are not enough for such a vital road. It is true, four lanes are not enough. It is the Golden Quadrilateral, after all. So, the road is being widened. And the trees that stood between the industrial area and the road are all gone.
I wish I knew someone, anyone, who had seen the butterflies there. I could share notes and lament the loss. But in so far I know, they were only my secret.
The construction company seems to be doing a neat job-- chop off the branches, then the top of the trunk, then the rest of it. Dig a trench the width of a lane, throw the soil away. Then fill the trench with some other type of sand, and a sturdy road make.
It is all heavily mechanized, large machines swiftly working. Every week or so, a small track is blocked for their work. And one by one, they return that track with a wider road. Really wider road. Wow! The road is getting pretty wide.
Correction, the road is getting wide. It is not the job of a road to be pretty.
As a commuter on that road, the widening suits me. It is not just about for smoother driving and less honking. As I drive down the widened road, there is empty road to my left, empty road to my right, empty road ahead and empty road behind. It is as if I am the king and they have cordoned away rest of the traffic.
And then suddenly I am on the stretch they are yet to widen, and it is so irritating. If you thought adding two lanes to a 4-lane road would improve traffic by only 50%, you need to read about Queuing Theory.
I guess it is a good thing that the road is being widened. One should not get all weepy-weepy over butterflies. We have too many obscurantists doing such weird things, don't we? People who keep criticizing progress in the name of conserving environment and protecting endangered species. I wonder how they earn a living. Foreign funding, probably.
Yet there is hope for progress. A species is endangered only as long it is not extinct. With time, we will prune the existing list. And add the butterflies.
India has had enough people who alternate between crawling and flying off the handle. They drink in the nectar of prosperity while their kin try to chew away its powerhouses. We cannot remain cocooned in backwardness, it's kinda embarrassing in international fora. India needs to take its rightful place in the comity of nations. And the trees are in the way.
Beware! For your heart still beats for the beauty of nature, and finds respect for those who struggle to preserve it. Clean up your mind, get your facts right. There are no free lunches, development comes at a price.
Butterflies aren't even the price of development. In India, elephants enjoy that privilege.
I like elephants, I really do. I understand this is not a competition. I also understand elephants would not interpret it as enjoying a privilege. Yet for no particular reason, I wish butterflies were the price of development.
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