Nature’s Beckon launches India’s First Maharishi Valmiki Birds Conservation ‘Pakhya’Celebration in Assam.
M Hashim Ali ,Dibrugarh, Rongili Barta- Amongst all the countries in this world, the consciousness for nature conservation and wildlife conservation arose for the first time in India. The tradition of wildlife conservation traces veryancient roots in the Indian society. Across the entire globe, its only the Indian people who worship wildlife along with God and Goddesses. It is noteworthy that in the Indian culture, wildlife belonging to four different categories like – mammals, reptiles, birds, insects have been given importance with reverence. Among the mammals – Elephant, Tiger, Hanuman are worshipped by the Indians, among the reptiles – snake, turtle, gharial are worshipped, and among the wild birds – owl, swan, peacock are worshipped in India. The importance of insect world is represented by the significance of butterfly in Indian culture. It is very clearly discernible that the consciousness for wildlife conservation is embedded in the Indian society from very ancient days of human civilization. But it is a matter of concern that the majority population of our young generation are not connected with the ancient tradition of wildlife conservation of the Indian civilization. And they are unaware of the fact that the western countries like USA, and other European Nations have borrowed the thoughts and philosophy of wildlife conservation from this ancient Indian tradition of wildlife conservation. The main reason behind this ignorance is our failure to propagate the thoughts, philosophy, and cultural practices related to our own country and the rich traditions and customs of wildlife conservation deeply entwined in India’s social structure and heritage. We don’t talk about the contributions of ancient India to wildlife & biodiversity conservation. On the other hand, the Britishers who ransacked Indian forests and looted India’s wildlife wealth to the point of extermination are known as the saviors of wildlife because of their well organized, and well executed propaganda of contributions of the English world to modern wildlife conservation. The British rule in India set the trend of killing wild birds for entertainment which led to slaughtering of lakhs of wild birds in the name of sport and game in our country. This spree of hunting of wildlife continued unabated in India until the enactment of the Wildlife Protection Act of India in 1972. Earlier, many Indian communities engaged in hunting of wild birds for their subsistence food and survival, this was not the same as game hunting of the Britishers. Indian people never hunted for entertainment, game hunting and tourism based on wildlife hunting was introduced by the colonial rulers of India.Amongst all the countries of this world, the first voice resisting the killing of wild birds was raised in our country. Maharishi Valmiki was the world’s first bird conservationist.In in the present times, everywhere in India and all over the world the matter of wild birds’ conservation has been considered very important and crucial topic. Nature’s Beckon has been working continuously for the conservation and protection of wild birds in Assam since 1982. It is well understood by the conscious and educated human civilizations around the world that it is indispensable to secure the future of wild birds to ensure the ecological balance of our planet. At the same time, the writers, intellectuals, and readers from different countries in the present world have come to appreciate the importance of Nature Writing literature. The growing surge of nature writing literature in the contemporary world shows the need of this genre been felt by diverse human populations around the world. Any reference to Nature Writing literature means writings that inspire the motivation and consciousness of nature conservation in the readers. We must clearly understand that nature writing is for the benefit of Mother Nature, any work of literature that contribute or propagate the nature conservation movement is to be called as ‘nature writing literature’. One must note the difference between ‘nature writing’ that inspire actions for nature conservation, from ‘nature based’ writings. The literature work created with the motive to save, protect, and conserve wildlife, forests, mountains, and other aspects of Mother Nature is accepted as ‘Nature writing’. In Indian cultural heritage, and India’s traditional literature, the name of Maharishi Valmiki is engraved in golden letters. Every Indian knows that Maharishi Valmiki for writing 24, 000 verses (shlokas), and the 500 Sargas, 7 Kandas Ramayana. The kandas are Balakanda,Ayodhyakanda, Aranyakanda,Kishkindakanda,