Connecting with nature

The world is facing a water crisis as our lakes, ponds and rivers dry up or get polluted. We can protect our spaces by becoming involved. The first step is to take our families and enjoy a visit or picnic to the nearby water bodies. This can be a refreshing way to connect with nature, while bonding with your family. Many lakes, full of precious, pure water, are being mindlessly destroyed by people dumping garbage into it, letting out their sewage. Industries often let untreated effluent into lakes and rivers.

You can become part of a wider circle of friends if you get involved with a group that cleans a lake. Just making those on the periphery of the lake aware of their role as protectors of the lake can be the best way to go about this. Those who live on the lakeside, have the best chance of protecting it. Planting trees on the banks of the lake or river can prevent soil erosion. The vigilance of people in the neighbourhood can prevent activities like sand mining which destroy the water bodies.

Nature can be a bountiful giver to our well being, if we love and respect her. Farmers and fishermen help feed us through her gifts. Most rural people have to work closely with nature. It is the fertility of the soil that sustains them. They are the first to suffer when nature is threatened. What is the price of clean air and water? Our very lives will tell us the value of these gifts.

The theme of the World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5, is ‘connecting people to nature’. Modern living with its emphasis on the concrete jungle has cut us off from our intimate bonds with mother nature. Re-establishing this bond can give us a wonderful new network of friends, while connecting us to a project to save planet earth. We need to do this urgently as this planet is our only home.

The writer is the author of  Everyday Happiness Mantras