Student Contributor : Mainak Ganguly, Pre-final Year Student, Department of Civil engineering, Adamas University

Humans are the most elite and sophisticated species on earth, no other species match our intellect. We always believe that we have a significant claim on our land, on our respective zones. We don’t need any permission to clear acres of forestland, drill seas for oils, bring down mountains for minerals, networks, transportation and what not. Moving forward to our near future we have increased demands for fast connectivity and hence we need tall telecommunication towers to facilitate our needs. Yet we are never satisfied, after almost finishing the reserves on our Mother Earth under the name of development we are now making moves to mine and drill resources on moon and other planets. NASA believes they can make significant progress on a mining project on moon which is rich with natural resources. The time is not far away when in a dystopian future an interstellar journey to a separate reserve under the name of planet or new home could become reality.

Effect of delinquency of human society:

A global scenario: Although we believe we are the kings of this planet ruling millions of square kilometres of lands. But we should be aware that we have explored 78 percent of land and more than 70 percent of oceans are yet to be explored. A wise man has said that “A king who calls himself a king is not really a king”. We always tend to forget the chronicles of Yeti the mysterious creature spotted mainly in the Himalayas, Tibet, Russia, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Siberia and Mongolia several times but netizens haven’t yet tracked it. Eric Shipton a British mountaineer and his associate found
footprints of a relatively huge creature in 1951 during their ongoing expedition of the Mt Everest, although Daniel C Taylor an eminent American scholar after decades of study and analysis came to
the conclusion that it was made by a bear. But in our world, we don’t believe anything till we witness it. We don’t believe man-eating plants exist; we still believe that Bermuda triangle mysteries were accidents. We believe our newspapers, press although we never realise what a catastrophe, they
are causing to the world spreading news serving their own interests propagating their own propaganda among the already depressed, subdued masses. Massacres caused to the Amazon wouldn’t be much of a concern nor the Australian Bushfires relocating millions of animals from their homes killing nearly an estimate 1.25 billion native animals in the process. As many as 8400 koalas have perished, along with significant numbers of kangaroos, wombats, wallabies, echidnas and many more. At least 113 animal species need immediate help, in which reptiles and crayfishes are in the worst position. The situation in Amazon is also not any good, although the exact numbers are yet to be verified owing to its vast and dense structure experts say that animals like the white cheeked spider monkey,
giant ottersare already at the risk of endangerment. More than 3000 species of fishes are also in grave danger, 1173 animal species altogether were threatened in which 318 are critically endangered and 406 being in danger of disappearing. Animals affected by climate change! well take a deep breath, at least seven species are already endangered, animals like the polar bear, orange spotted filefish, adelie penguins, north Atlantic cod are fighting their own war and animals like the golden toad harlequin frog
are already extinct.

Indian scenario: In India the story is not very different, 22 species are already extinct. The Indian Cheetah found mainly in the semi dessert areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat have vanished from the horizon along with the Sumatran rhinoceros, the pink headed duck which was last seen around 1950. Even if we leave animals like the woolly mammoth, Dodo, sabre toothed cat out of the equation, animals like the west African black rhinoceros, baiji white dolphin, Pyrenean ibex, passenger pigeon and the
Tasmanian tiger have gone extinct pretty recently .Now people may wonder that climate change is a huge element but they have to also consider that, poaching is also a massive contributor. Cowards taking 
up arms to slaughter innocent animals to sell their skin and body parts, appendages in return of lump sum amount of riches in the black-market have always been a trend with the authorities taking no fruitful
action. Actually, who cares about puny animals, we are proud of our own language, own culture and we often tend to impose it to other cultures killing their existence. Animals bark, howl, and scream making annoying noises which we don’t like because we can’t decipher them. Not everyone could be Francine Patterson who trained a gorilla named KOKO with American Sign Language. Harambe, the gorilla who was mercilessly shot dead, had to pay due to limitations of parentage and it doesn’t end there, killing animals isn’t much of a crime even in liberal countries like INDIA where Avni, the tigress was hunted by a professional hunter hired by the Govt. The clearing of Aarey Forest is a different case altogether.

Things doesn’t end there, when it comes to vast road and railway networks near forests ,especially in India as of 2018 a data suggests that nearly 161 have perished due to road and railway accidents .107 animals have been killed by road accidents with a staggering number of 70 leopards contributing to the majority and 53 animals have been decimated by train accidents with a whopping number of nearly 29 elephants ,even after all that no special move from the authorities to seal the rail tracks near these
sensitive zones. Now when we talk about stray animals by September 4, 2019 at least 1000 stray animals have been injured in 4 months and from 2011-12 till 2019, July as many as 11,915 stray animals have been injured. This data only represents the cases in Nagpur as verified by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, so people can visualize the number all around India. Numerous street cats and dogs are run over by vehicular monsters without any haste every day, but who cares about mere animals when thousands of human beings are dying every day which is actually the defence of the concerned authorities trying hard to maintain an ecological balance. 

Is change in food habit the only solution? Some people are turning into Veganism, though truly someone following the vegan philosophy needs to be respected yet they are subjects of memes and trolls in this digital age. Although nobody can blame the trollers as there are evidences of vegans visiting zoos and aquariums to enjoy the show of locked animals. On top of everything the zoo culture is something else where some animals are really rescued, treated and released when they are ready but some are quite prevalent for entertainment of the higher race on the graph. There many other ways to help animal from extinction by looking after the nature surrounding us. Human activity is common among many reasons behind mass extinction of animals. To stop this rapid extinction, we need to take
rapid steps like-

a) Protection to nature: Currently 3% of the oceans and 15% of the land are isolated as ‘protected areas’, though in reality most of them are just protected in page not in reality. More number of protected areas are required with proper protection to save the endangered animals.

b) Attitude towards nature: Nature should not be viewed as the business policy but we should take care of the environment as necessity of our life. Human get food from nature to meet hunger, get oxygen to breathe in addition it gives the sense of freshness, joy and solace. Hence, we
should rejuvenate our ethics to transform the values human society ascribe to nature and the way we relate to it.

c) Focus on sustainable environment: A sustainable environment is only possible if we refrain from the activities that destructs the greenery of the world. More emphasis should be given on recycling and reuse of the products.

Time to mind responsibilities of human society: It’s high time that we realise our sins during this lockdown, and repent from committing them again. Human being is popular among all animals for the ability to turn impossible thing into possible, in the similar way it’s the time to act with our advanced technology to improve individual’s life maintaining eco balance. When the whole world is locked in their nest’s, animals are actually roaming freely. Dolphins, crocodiles have been spotted in Venice, Marine Drive in Mumbai and Ganga in Kolkata has witnessed the reoccurrence of dolphins, famously known as Shushuk in Bengal. Himalayan Cats, Leopards, peacocks are freely exploring deserted places in North India. The Lopburi Monkeys clearly seen in the Thai city of Lopburi are creating massive panic amongst the locals owing to their aggressive nature. Wild Boars residing in the mountains of Catalonia are hustling around the streets of Barcelona. With decrease in adequate supplies these animals have no option, they are like all of us fighting for their own existence, in the end it is what it is “survival of the fittest “. It could only be a matter of time when “Rise of The Planet of The Apes” becomes reality only if we the self-declared intelligent animal don’t show up our responsibilities to all the beautiful creatures in the ecosystem of the world.

Further Readings:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/vanishing-wildlife-22-species-have-gone-extinct-inindia/article28733215.ece
2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/lists/beautiful-extinct-animals/
3. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/16/five-ways-to-stop-mass-extinction