Yesterday I saw very disturbing pictures of a black bear being beaten by a huge crowd of people to death inhumanly. And all this happened in the presence of the police and the forest officers. This means that police and the forest officers are also involved in the killing of the bear. But why was the bear beaten to death so inhumanly?
The answer is that it dared to enter the human civilization because its home was destroyed by the humans. It dared to come in front of the selfish, cruel and ruthless humans. It came to human civilization for food or water, because it did not get it in the forest because humans took it away from it. And also a very big reason it was killed it was innocent, and unable to speak, and it was not a human. Yes that is why it was killed so cruelly or better brutally.
There are many laws that are made to deliver justice. But, the justice they deliver is only to humans. (And in India even that is doubted because it is not delivered to all but only to rich.) What about the justice to the dumb animals, birds, fishes, trees, forests, and environment? What about the justice to our ‘Mother’? And because God created all this, what about justice to god himself? Or have god’s most intelligent creation stopped thinking and caring about god, earth and environment once his dependency on god is over? Our laws don’t deliver justice to all these.
There are many laws that mention the punishment to be given for a certain crime. But again these punishments are only given if the crime is committed on humans. What about animals? Or is it ok if animals and killed ruthlessly for humans own needs? If a person it beaten to death by someone, he might get ‘at least’ 8-10 years of imprisonment and penalty. But if an animal is stabbed to death, imprisonment is far away but there is even no penalty for doing so. Why? Or is there life not important to the country? Why do we turn our backs to the issues not important to us so conveniently and frequently?
Before this there was an incident where a jumbo was beaten up by a mob with stones and then when it went into a nearby river it was not forced to remain there and then after that it was forced to drown. But the cruelty didn’t stop here. After the elephant died a crane was called on the place and then using the crane the elephant was picked up and shown to the people present there that the elephant was dead. How cruel was that! Imagine what would happen if there was a human in the place of the elephant. There would have been criminal police cases filed against the people present there. The media would have given it more coverage than this incidence was given. Many ‘Human Right’ activists would have come out in protest of the incidence. And this matter would have been discussed in the Vidhan Sabha of that state and also even in Parliament. But nothing out this happened in this case.
This was about the laws. But, what about us? Have we really lost our humanity? Just look at the way we treat the wild animals and stray animals. Why have we stopped caring for stray animals with whom once we were as friendly as we are now with our pets today? Why do we dislike the stray animals when they do the same work for us that our pets do? (Like stray dogs protect our houses like our pet dogs.) I know that they are a bit dangerous because they can give us deadly diseases by there bites. But that does not that we treat them like useless objects by throwing stones at them and even killing them so that they do not cause chaos in cities. In rural areas, the farmers have cows and hens that are like there pets and whom the farmers treat like there kids. But when it comes to wild animals why do the farmers become so ruthless. It is said that a snake is a farmer’s friend because it eats rats and mice that destroy their crops. The irony is that farmers love and take care of cats that do the same thing but they ruthlessly stab snakes to death on just seeing them. Many times it has been told to them by the NGO’s in the programs to save the snakes that there are only four species of poisonous snakes in India and even they along all snakes bite only in defense and not in aggression. The farmers are also taught what to do if a snake suddenly in front of you- “get away from snake slowly, don’t do anything that will surprise the snake and never try to tarp it instead give it way to run away because snakes are very shy animals. And they are afraid of you more than you of them.” But all this goes in vain when many snakes are stabbed by farmers to death. Same is the case with other big animals, especially leopards. And if the come in the human civilization then it is only because they don’t get food and water in the remaining forest and also they don’t get any shelter in the forest. They come in human civilization thinking that this is their home and get surprised seeing many people staring them and so they attack the people. And even in that case many times leopards are killed after repeated telling that don’t kill them or throw stones at them but try to trap them in something till the forest officers are called. But this rarely happens. Many leopards are forced to jump in the wells or attack them and that too in defense. Of course the forest officers never reach the spot on time and the government does not have proper arrangements to handle situations like these. If all this goes on in the same way than these animals will get close to extremely endangered mark because of mass killing of these animals.
And then all this leaves us with some other important question- Who are we to decide that the human life is the precious that all other plants and animals? Who gave us the right to decide that and act accordingly? Why have we become so selfish that we think we are the most important and precious living things on earth? Don’t the wild as well as domestic animals, birds, plants have the right to live? Have we today forgotten Buddha’s Principle “Live and Let Live”? Have we today become so selfish that we start forgetting great men’s and go’s thought? Have we become so great that we edit the principles and teaching of Mahatmas, Saints and Gods in such a way that we can follow them in the way we want? And is all this just because of our greed to live more and earn more? Do we think we are superior to the nature, earth and god just because we have extremely good brains and nuclear powers to disobey their laws? Do we have the right to do all this?
