Circles of life and rebirth

Living in urban spaces has reduced World Environment Day to limited scopes of thinking and imagining the problems being faced by our planet today.

- MOHUL BHATTACHARYA

Environment, though taught as a subject in school, needs more attention to preserve a habitable planet. Every organism, be it human or animal, is tied to circles of life. This means we are dependent and depend on for the maintenance of a good ecology.

A very common example is the house crow (Corvus splendens). Crows are scavengers and opportunistic feeders; they can eat both meat and vegetables, making them omnivorous and highly adaptable in urban spaces. They thrive around marketplaces, garbage dumps, and domestic spaces of humans. What we throw away becomes a means of sustenance for them. Probably this is where the traditional superstition came into being that crows are our ancestors, and feeding them is an act of goodwill. This is how circles of life are formed. Crows contribute significantly to the environment in various ways. They help control insect populations by feeding on pests such as grasshoppers and beetles, which can otherwise become problematic. Additionally, their scavenging behaviour aids in cleaning up carrion, thereby reducing the spread of diseases. Hence feeding a crow can regulate a healthy ecosystem.