Kotagiri,
Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve,
Tamil Nadu,
India.
January 2020
The Blue Mountains had me humming Baloo the Bear’s masterpiece from The Jungle Book.
When I spotted a Bear (not unusual in this part of the world),
although, I wasn’t looking for the “bear” necessities, the simple bare necessities of life came to me.
Wherever I wandered, wherever I roamed, I couldn’t have been fonder of my big home.
I really did want to rest at ease with just the bare necessities,
Until I couldn’t forget about my worries and what should be our shared strife.
It is manifested here in more ways than one.
Humans are in conflict with Wildlife.
We have been, ever since we showed up.
One doesn’t know it has limits. With good reason.
The other chooses to forget that it does. With defiant apathy.
It’s simple: You can’t live in the world like you don’t share it with anything else.
Humans are making that mistake.
Animals simply have no idea where to go. One day they have a home – a space they can call their own, and then they don’t.
They’re displaced. They’re at our mercy – prisoners of an increasingly eroded green.
The NBR houses this conflict and carelessness.
With the exception of a few human beings who are helping both species befriend boundaries, in the interest of a blue (and hopefully green) planet.
The Keystone Foundation is that rare species.
When purposeful people enter into politely assertive green crusades, to preserve nature’s vitalizing breath, they become battles every bit worth documenting. I believe the Keystone Foundation was named, befittingly, for that disproportionately large effect it wants to and has had on its natural environment.
For ecosystems without keystone species are arches fated for collapse.
They generate a large top-down effect on diversity and competition, making it dramatically different and difficult for an ecosystem to exist without them.
They are “The Bare Necessity”.
Now, wait a minute,
“The Bees are buzzing in the tree,
To make some honey just for me.”
Time to hunt the honey down and call a truce!
A lesson the Adivasis learnt ages ago…
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