Period 4 – Man and Nature – Then and Now

April05

Early man depended on nature to help him survive with food and shelter. So he loved Mother Earth as Goddess Earth or Bhu Maata. He also worshipped the nature – fire, air, rain, the ocean, the Sun and the planets.

So, they lived in great harmony with Nature, respecting all forms of life.

While we believed that God, man and Nature have to be united, the west came to believe that everything has to be conquered and what man needed had to be taken forcefully taken from Nature.

So, civilisation all over the world began to cut down forests, clear valleys and change the course of rivers to make mighty empires. Science advanced and man’s conquest of Nature grew. Cement jungles called cities came up everywhere. Men began to feel that they were truly the kings of the world.

Men were so busy showing their power and greatness that they did not realise that while they were setting up empires, they were not only destroying Nature, but also destroying precious things that were important for human life on our planet like pure air, clean water, rain, forests and food crops, ozone layer.

Suddenly, all over the world people began to realise that something was going wrong in a big way.

Story – Environment awareness

One day Rohit’s mother asked him to go to the vegetable vendor and buy some potatoes and tomatoes. On his way to the shop Rohit met his friends who were going to play cricket. Rohit loved to play cricket and so he went with his friends. He completely forgot about vegetables.After playing for an hour he suddenly remembered and ran to the vegetable vendor. The vegetable vendor put the potato and tomatoes in a plastic bag. Rohit remembered his teacher telling him not to use plastic bags. She had told in the class that they are harmful to nature, animals and birds. He told the vegetable vendor to wait and ran back all the way home to bring a cloth bag. He apologized to his mother and asked for a cloth bag. He ran back to the vegetable vendor and bought the potatoes and tomatoes.He returned home and explained to his mother what happened. His mother hugged him and said she was very proud of him.