We see phrases like Global Warming, Earth Day, Environment awareness, save our tigers etc in media in the last few years. We got used to these slogans everyday but I am not sure if we are really concerned about the environment.

Ancient Indians are generally nature lovers and they never did any harm to the environment for fulfilling their needs. Our ancestors worshipped rivers, earth and nurture forests. They used to plant trees all around the temples that they have built. They consider it as their duty to protect the environment for the future generations. You can still see marvelous temples in TamilNadu built by Cholas 1000 years ago with finest architecture which is equipped with rain water harvesting techniques etc.

There were no road shows, campaigns those times to save the environment. They consider it as part of their lives.

In the name of development, globalization etc we are abusing our environment as much as we can. When I was a kid I still remember my grandma used to take cotton bags in her hand whenever she goes to market. She never expects any plastic bags from the vendor. She washes the bag after using it and reuses it every time.

After years passed by we started following the western culture and shopkeepers provide plastic bags which gave us the luxury of going to shops without carrying anything in our hand. These plastic carry bags are one of the worst enemies of our environment. Westerners realized the problems due to plastic bags and they have started using reusable bags. This is what my grandma done 20 years ago. We should take only good things from western culture and I think we are doing the opposite.

Let us learn our heritage and the way of living of our ancestors. It will give us more knowledge about nurturing our environment than the campaigns. Hope I have a point here.

Thanks for your time

Kathir